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Aug 31, 2006
Hong Kong-listed Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical (0338) saw its first-half net profit plummet 99.7 percent to 5.69 million yuan (HK$5.56 million) - and warned its net profit for the first nine months would also drop substantially. Cathay Pacific Airways (0293) plans to increase its New York and San Francisco services as rivals target long- haul routes for expansion. The Ngong Ping 360 cable car system on Lantau is expected to open before National Day, or what is known in the mainland as the Golden Week, the operator said. India has barred a Chinese company, Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings, from participating in a project to build a container port in Mumbai, citing security concerns, a senior port official said on Wednesday.
A Hong Kong delegate to a top
national advisory body yesterday urged the chief executive to consider joining
regional trading blocs to bolster the city's export economy.
Power stations in Guangdong emitted around 700,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide last year - the fifth highest amount from China's provinces, a mainland planning expert said on Wednesday.
Jinjiang International Hotels Development, the mainland's largest hotel operator, is in talks with international hoteliers including Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Fairmont Hotels and Resorts over selling a strategic stake in the run-up to the company's US$300 million initial public offering, sources said. Should the company invite an overseas chain as a strategic investor, the share offering could be pushed back to early next year, a person familiar with the situation said. Originally, a sale as early as the third quarter had been planned. UBS and BNP Paribas are arranging the share sale. Jinjiang Hotels, which manages about 250 four- and five-star hotels in Beijing, Shanghai and in Zhejiang and Jiangsu, runs Peace Hotel, a 100-year-old building on the Bund in Shanghai which with the Raffles Hotel in Singapore were Asia's most opulent hotels in the 1930s. "[Overseas investors] will improve the quality of service at the hotels because the [mainland] operators still do not do five-star very well," said Tung Tai Securities associate director Kenny Tang Sing-hing. "If you want to improve the service and attract more different travellers, then you need them." Jinjiang Hotels, which saw a 13 per cent rise in net income to 98 million yuan in the first half on sales of 466 million yuan, also runs Jinjiang Inn, a chain of three-star hotels spread across 10 provinces. Jinjiang Hotels plans to open 16 more hotels and inns by the end of 2008. It also operates a travel agency, fast-food outlets and a taxi-leasing service. "For five-star hotels the outlook is good but in the three and four-star sector competition remains quite high now and will remain so because barriers to entry are low," Mr Tang said. US-based Starwood, which runs several hotel chains including the Luxury Collection, Sheraton, St Regis and Westin, operates 28 hotels in the mainland, Taiwan and Macau and has another 28 being built. Fairmont of Canada, which does not have a presence in China, was bought this year by Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and private equity firm Colony Capital. Colony owns the Raffles brand of hotels and operates one hotel in Beijing. China attracted a record 120 million foreign tourists last year, ranking fourth among the world's most popular travel destinations. Foreign visitors spent US$29 billion in China while mainland travelers spent US$67 billion Aug 30, 2006
Hong Kong Dragon Airlines is planning to lay off a significant number of its support staff when its ownership passes to Cathay Pacific Airways (0293), said a source close to the situation. The Malaysian parent of Hong Kong- listed Parkson Retail Group (3368), a major department store operator in the mainland, is seeking to reduce its majority stake by selling up to HK$1.33 billion worth of shares to institutional investors. Police and government officers raided Hong Kong's only unlicensed radio station Tuesday evening, arresting one man and issuing verbal warnings to two others in a long-anticipated sting against Citizens' Radio which is operated by activist Tsang Kin-shing.
While local media associations have joined in the chorus condemning published photographs showing Cantopop singer Gillian Chung Yan-tung undressing, they have stopped short of calling for law reform, saying freedom of the press in Hong Kong continues to remain too sensitive an issue. Hong Kong's political elite on Tuesday said they would look into calls by a Hong Kong pop star to tighten privacy laws after she was secretly photographed semi-nude by a tabloid-style magazine. Despite strong public and political party opposition, Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen is likely to make a proposal for a goods and services tax after the consultation period ends in March, a Liberal Party legislator said Tuesday.
Visiting United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab Tuesday in Beijing warned that there would be no winners if the Doha Round of trade talks eventually collapsed. China is to begin construction of a refinery and a machinery plant in Hefei, capital of eastern Anhui Province, which can turn out one ton of bio-oil from every two tons of crop stalks. Zhejiang Expressway (0576), China's largest toll-road operator by market value, reported its first-half earnings grew 8.9 percent due to increased traffic on its highways, as well as higher income from auxiliary operations such as filling stations and restaurants. China will send a first batch of air marshals for training in the United States in an indication of strengthening cooperation between the two nations on combating terrorism, state media said on Tuesday. Aug 29, 2006
In the latest twist to its war on illegal bookmaking, the Hong Kong Jockey Club announced a cash rebate it hopes will take up to 20 percent of racing bets away from underground pools. The nomination of Hong Kong film Exiled for the Golden Lion Award at the upcoming Venice Film Festival shows that its director, Johnnie To Kei- fung, belongs in the pantheon of modern cinematic masters, said acclaimed actor Francis Ng Chun-yu. Hong Kong needs to get involved now in helping to draw up China's next five-year plan or risk being left by the wayside, a cross-border business leader warned yesterday.
A report on CLP Power's choice of location for its liquefied natural gas terminal will be studied with "sensitivity" and "wisdom", rather than being driven solely by pressing time concerns, the government's top environment adviser said.
China Shenhua Energy Co. Ltd will increase its coal output by 15 million tons annually within the next five years to make the company the world's biggest coal producer, Shenhua's top official said in Hongkong Monday.
Japan's trade with China jumped almost 10% in the six months to June, setting a record high for a seventh straight year despite diplomatic frictions.
China has received over 13,000 patent applications from US patentees in the first half of this year, a large increase compared with the same period in 2005, said the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO). Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC) yesterday announced that it had launched legal action against Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) over the alleged misappropriation of trade secrets. The mainland's largest oil refiner, China Petroleum & Chemical (0386), reported a better-than-expected 8.9 percent increase in first-half net profit, boosted by strong growth in upstream exploration business amid soaring oil prices. Dalian Port (2880), the largest container terminal operator on northeast China's Bohai Sea, said net profit for the six months ended June jumped 55 percent, driven by growth of its core businesses and bank interest income. The recruitment of a 100,000-strong team of volunteers for the Beijing Olympics kicked off in the capital yesterday, less than two years ahead of the event, with Hong Kong applicants expected to be considered next year. China's State Council is blocking bond sales totalling as much as US$3 billion by three government agencies on concern that they would make the problem of managing the yuan even more difficult, market sources said. Tsingtao Brewery, China's largest beer producer, posted a 22.5 per cent rise in first-half earnings, thanks to increased sales in the booming mainland market drowning out rising competition. Aug 28, 2006
St James' Settlement yesterday stepped up its bid to get the government to reconsider its HK$100 million plan to transform the 80-year-old Blue House on Stone Nullah Lane in Wan Chai.
China announced Friday its revised rules on qualified foreign institutional investors (QFII) in a bid to attract more non-speculative overseas investment for its stock markets.
An inspection by the National People's Congress found that the mainland has made little progress in controlling water and air pollution and treating industrial waste, top legislators have been told. China's gold jewellery demand in the second quarter of 2006 fell 2 per cent to 54.5 tonnes from the same period last year as high prices curbed purchases, a senior industry official said. Aug 25 - 27, 2006
Hong Kong's public order and rule of law was under siege and severe challenge just hours after bashed Democratic Party vice chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan had left the confines of Queen Mary Hospital, with his solicitor firm receiving another threatening letter in which a razor blade was enclosed.
Hong Kong's top organizer of equestrian events for the 2008 Olympics says the summer humidity could pose problems, although the Hong Kong Observatory is conducting a two-year micro-weather monitoring program near the events' sites in Sha Tin and Sheung Shui to gather precise data on typical weather in August. Hong Kong businessmen who own polluting industries in the Pearl River Delta are now paying the price, with up to 20 percent of them forced to suspend operations or close down, a manufacturers group has revealed. The Hong Kong Jockey Club, one of the territory's largest charitable organizations, has unveiled a trio of initiatives worth HK$300 million aimed at helping the deaf and the dyslexic, and preserving the city's collective memory. The Hong Kong Jockey Club donated HK$1.03 billion to charitable causes in 2005-06, a slight increase of 0.69 per cent year-on-year, despite record turnover.
The one-way permit scheme under which mainlanders can be reunited with their families in Hong Kong needs to be reviewed in the light of the city's changing population and falling birth rate, a think-tank said yesterday. The consumer rights watchdog yesterday added its weight to calls for legislation to regulate the sales of uncompleted flats in Hong Kong, ahead of today's four-party meeting to discuss recent sales strategies.
The authorities last year cracked down on more than 50 money-laundering cases involving more than 10 billion yuan, the central bank said yesterday in a report. China and Viet Nam will accelerate oil and gas exploration and extraction in the border waters of the Beibu Gulf, according to a joint statement released yesterday evening.
China's government may issue its first high-speed wireless license within six months, an executive said, opening up a market with more subscribers than the combined populations of the U.S. and Japan. The Chinese government has banned employers from imposing overtime on staff or exposing them to the sun and heat as parts of the country experience the worst heat wave in 50 years. Aluminum Corp of China (2600), the mainland's largest alumina producer, also known as Chalco, plans to invest 60 billion yuan (HK$58.56 billion) over the next five years to boost its production capacity, as well as funding acquisitions to tap the growing domestic demand for metal. Giant US retailer Wal-Mart, one of the world's most staunchly anti-unionist companies, has seen its first Communist Party branch established at one of its outlets in Shenyang, Liaoning province. Almost 12 times as many "suspicious" foreign exchange transactions were recorded on the mainland last year than in 2004 amid intensifying government efforts to crack down on illegal fund flows, the People's Bank of China reported yesterday. Aug 24, 2006
Deutsche Bank Group Chief Economist Norbert Walter said the global economic upswing was slowing, particularly in the United States, which he blamed on higher interest rates and oil prices, and stagnating house prices. China's legislature is considering its first ever law to ban the sale of cigarettes and alcohol to the country's 300 million young people below the age of 18. China and the United States are carrying out their commitments to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) and both sides are encouraged by recent progress, two U.S. intellectual property rights (IPR) officials said here on Tuesday. President Hu Jintao on Monday exchanged views with U.S. President Bush on the phone on cementing economic dialogue and promoting bilateral trade ties. There were more than 798 million telephone users in China at the end of July, with cell phone users topping 431 million, said the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) on Monday. The composite index of Shanghai Stock Exchange bounced up 3.13 points to close at 1,601.15 points after a day of fluctuations on Monday, the first day of trading since the central bank announced a rise in interest rates.
The China Banking Regulatory Commission said in a Monday press release that 480 irregularities involving a total of 520 million yuan had been uncovered from January to June of the year. Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), has called for rapid and sound economic and social development in ethnic minority areas in west China.
Waste-water tariffs will be extended to all cities and towns - including more than 270 cities that lack treatment facilities - by the end of this year to tackle the nation's worsening water pollution. Chongqing's worst drought on record may have been intensified by a massive methane leak from a natural gas field outside the city owned by China National Petroleum Corp, an atmospheric scientist claimed yesterday. Bank of Communications (Bocom), the mainland's fifth-largest commercial lender, forecast stable lending growth in the rest of the year despite government austerity measures, after announcing a 31 per cent jump in first-half profit as customers borrowed more. China National Heavy Duty Truck, the mainland's third-largest heavy truck maker, has spurned Volvo of Sweden from taking a strategic stake in the company as it prepares for a US$500 million initial public offering in Hong Kong later this year, market sources said. The Shanghai government's pension fund management arm is suing two companies controlled by Zhang Rongkun, Shanghai Electric Group's former director, in a move to retrieve about 3.45 billion yuan of the fund. Jiangxi Copper, the largest mainland producer of the metal, said its first-half earnings more than doubled, thanks to rising copper and gold prices, as well as increased sales. Aug 23, 2006
Hong Kong stocks skidded Monday in their biggest one-day percentage decline in two months as China's move to raise interest rates unsettled investors, prompting a broad sell-off, down 322 points. China Merchants Bank (0133), the mainland's sixth largest commercial bank, plans to sell new shares in Hong Kong at a premium over its domestic market shares by the end of September, people familiar with the situation said Monday. Value Partners, the third-largest shareholder of troubled aluminum extrusion product maker Ocean Grand Holdings (1220), is to make full provision for its US$4 million (HK$31.2 million) investment in the debt-ridden company, according to Cheah Cheng Hye, chief investment officer and founder of Value Partners. Despite a 35 percent drop in its annual net profit, Hang Lung Properties (0101) has secured through private negotiations a coveted plot of land in Pok Fu Lam, which it wants to develop into a luxury housing project with an estimated price tag of HK$1 billion. Tom Group (2383), a media company controlled by Li Ka-shing, said it plans to acquire publishing businesses in Taiwan and outdoor advertising assets in the mainland before the end of the year in an attempt to offset lower second-half sales in its Internet unit, Tom Online (8282).
Hong Kong's economic growth is likely to have moderated in the second quarter, as a slowdown in the United States, its biggest trading partner, hurt the territory's exports, economists said.
Four international restaurant chains recently opened four new restaurants at Tsim Sha Tsui Centre, saying they plan to create a modern dining hub called “Al Fresco Lane”.
The central government is encouraging home buyers to use mortgages from public housing funds, as regulators tighten controls on loans from commercial banks.
Construction of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo site officially started on Saturday, a symbolic moment as the city bids to turn the multi-billion dollar project into a spectacular reality. The yuan hit a post-revaluation high Monday, bonds sank and stocks ended flat after the most aggressive monetary tightening since authorities stepped up efforts to cool the economy in April. Vietnamese communist party chief Nong Duc Manh heads to China on Tuesday intending to reassure Beijing that their bilateral ties are not endangered by Vietnam’s new partnership with the United States. President Hugo Chavez of oil-rich Venezuela visits China this week to buy tankers and seal an oil exploration deal amid a rapid increase in energy sales to fuel China’s booming economy. China is facing a "funding gap" as it plans to dramatically expand its railway network, forcing it to consider allowing more foreign investment and a greater role for the market, state media said on Monday. State Grid Corp, the larger of China's two power distributors, is planning to raise at least US$5 billion in an initial public offering in 2008, people familiar with the situation said. Aug 22, 2006
Eager buyers snapped up about 150 flats Friday night as Hong Kong's two largest developers - Cheung Kong (Holdings) and Sun Hung Kai Properties - slugged it out in a flat-selling battle royal. CSMC Technologies, a semiconductor manufacturer, announced Friday it made a stunning recovery in the first half of the year by posting a net profit of US$523,000 (HK$4.08 million), compared to a net loss of US$6.04 million in the same period the previous year.
In his first comment on the controversial goods and services tax, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen called on the chairmen and vice chairmen of 18 district councils to keep their minds open and listen to the views of the people before arriving at a conclusion. Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen told lawmakers yesterday that the public consultation on introducing a goods and services tax (GST) was necessary even though it was controversial and was harming his administration's popularity.
Everybody in Hong Kong should be entitled to one full medical check-up at the government's expense during their lifetime, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen was told yesterday.
Experts dismissed a rumor spreading on the Internet that the drought in Chongqing was related to the Three Gorges Project as a "story without any scientific basis." Sichuan's Bureau of Meteorology and Geophysics (BMG) reported on Thursday that the high temperatures and drought in Sichuan Province are the most severe since the BMG began keeping meteorological records in 1951. The Sichuan BMG believes the high temperatures and drought partially reflect global climate change, which is leading to more frequent and extreme weather, a trend exemplified by the series of coastal typhoons that have hit China. These recent coastal typhoons are a major cause of the region's heat wave. Kept down by the typhoon, the subtropical high cannot move forward. As a result, it has been controlling most parts of Sichuan for some time. The incidence rate of erectile dysfunction (ED) among Chinese men is high but only 10 percent of sufferers are willing to seek treatment, according to a survey.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce ruled that potato starch producers from the EU are guilty of dumping on the Chinese market, damaging China's own industry. With a better-than-expected earnings report from Chinese wireless value- added services provider Kongzhong this week, Chinese tech investors appear to believe the impact of new regulations from dominant mobile operator China Mobile will not be as bleak as first feared. China's aviation regulator and air force are in talks with the International Air Transport Association to open three air corridors through the country to reduce flying time from Europe, the airline industry group said. Guangzhou will soon end a two-year moratorium on licensing new internet cafes, a move that is expected to double the number of legal internet bars in the city by next year, according to a news report. Aug 21, 2006
Prosperity REIT, the real estate investment trust set up by leading developer Cheung Kong (Holdings), generated about 7 percent more distributable income to shareholders in its first half-year results, thanks to higher rents and ongoing cost controls.
The driver of a minibus who veered into the wrong lane of a road in Sai Kung and killed a racing cyclist was yesterday jailed for five months, a sentence condemned as too lenient by a teammate of the dead man.
The Lands Department faces another investigation over the way it handled Daniel Heung Cheuk-kei's alleged misuse of government land, after a political group filed a complaint to the Ombudsman yesterday.
China's currency, the yuan, is likely to stay on the slow-appreciating track despite its recent sharp fall, a well-known Chinese economist said Wednesday. US PC giant Dell Inc is facing an exodus of top executives from its China operations that could affect its business in one of the world's most dynamic PC markets. Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer and a bellwether for the industry, has reported its first decline in quarterly income in 10 years, blaming trouble in foreign markets for the financial slip, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
China has closed 3,014 shops around the country selling pirated audio-video products and computer software in one month, at the beginning of a 100-day intensive crackdown on piracy.
Sulfur dioxide emissions in Shanghai will be reduced by 26 per cent within four years, city officials said yesterday after the mainland announced earlier this month that it was the world's largest producer of SO2 in 2005. Shares of Air China, the mainland's largest international airline, will begin trading today in Shanghai amid expectations that they will drop below their initial public offering price because of concern over the carrier's earnings prospects in the face of record oil costs. Aug 18 - 20, 2006
People suffering from degenerative diseases can give written instructions on their future medical treatment should they reach a stage where they are no longer mentally competent to make such decisions. While the concept is new in Hong Kong, "living wills," as they are called in the United States, have been a fact of life - and death - there for many years.
Asia's richest woman, Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum, has won a limited victory in court, forcing her father-in-law to provide details about his funding of a marathon court battle with her over the will of her deceased husband. The government plans to allocate HK$2.3 billion for five new research and development centres in Hong Kong, Technology Secretary Joseph Wong Wing-ping said on Wednesday. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said on Wednesday total card receivables increased by 2.5 per cent (or HK$1.6 billion) in the second quarter of the year. Credit card receivables are amounts owed by the holders of credit cards - to the banks who issued the cards - arising from transactions made with these credit cards. The share price of electricity supplier CLP Holdings hit a 52-week high Tuesday after the company reported an interim net profit of HK$4.97 billion for the first half - up 9 percent from HK$4.61 billion the previous year, thanks to soaring overseas earnings.
The Securities and Futures Commission said it may require independent auditors to conduct compulsory checks on assets held by individual investors against the account records provided by their brokerage firms to make it more difficult for securities brokers to steal client assets. A Hong Kong delegate to the National People's Congress has appealed to the central government to give a lenient sentence to - or release - SAR-based journalist Ching Cheong, who was tried on espionage charges behind closed doors in Beijing Tuesday.
Shun Tak Holdings, Macau gaming magnate Stanley Ho Hung-sun's property-to-shipping group, unveiled plans yesterday to build a HK$1 billion Marriott hotel at Hong Kong's airport, the group's first foray into the city's bustling hospitality sector.
Comerica Bank has become the latest U.S. financial institute to open an office in Shanghai, China, to take advantage of the booming Chinese economy. China's growing role in Africa offers encouraging opportunities for the region's economic and social development, a senior United Nations official said Tuesday in Beijing. China’s urban fixed asset investments rose 30.5 per cent in the first seven months of this year from a year earlier, official data showed on Wednesday, indicating a marginal slowdown. German automaker BMW AG and Shanghai’s SAIC Motor are discussing the possible sale of the Rover brand name to the Chinese car maker but have yet to strike a deal, spokesmen from both companies said on Wednesday. Huaneng Power International, China's largest independent power producer, posted a better than expected 29 per cent rise in interim profit as it benefited from a higher tariff and as more efficient plants came on stream. China, the world's largest wheat producer, may export as much as two million tons of the grain as livestock feed in the year ending next June as warehouse managers struggle to store the country's biggest harvest in seven years. NetEase.com, China's biggest online gaming company, said profit grew 29 per cent for the second quarter, boosted by better than expected performance of its stable of established online games such as Fantasy Westward Journey and by World Cup-related advertising. Chinese electronics companies are responding to increased demand by mainland manufacturers and financial services firms for advanced, internet-based video-conferencing systems to cut travel and boost productivity amid increasingly stringent air transport restrictions and growing foreign competition. Aug 17, 2006
Hong Kong’s International Airport (HKIA), Asia’s third-busiest by passenger traffic, handled 4.1 million passengers in July — a rise of 8.6 per cent compared with the same month last year. Software developer HKC International has built a telephone switchboard system that can transfer a fixed-line call into a Wi-fi internet call, making possible free local and overseas connections that could threaten mobile operators' roaming revenue worth as much as HK$2.5 billion a year.
The World Bank said Tuesday China's economy is expected to grow 10.4 percent this year and 9.3 percent in 2007.
Doll Capital Management (DCM), a leading US-based venture capital firm, is trying to expand its footprint to traditional industries with its new US$500 million DCM V fund. Shanghai Pudong Development Bank's first-half net profit rose by 30.83% to 1.60 billion yuan on the strength of a widening profit margin between loan and deposit rates.
China Mobility Solutions, a Vancouver-based software company, has entered the short messaging service (SMS) banking market in the mainland, after buying control last week of Beijing Topbiz Technology Development. Aug 16, 2006
Troubled mainland refrigerator maker Guangdong Kelon Electrical Holdings turned into the largest loss-maker listed on the mainland market in 2005 after former chairman Gu Chujun was accused of embezzling and misappropriating substantial amounts of company assets. Shares of China Construction Bank, the first H share to be included in the benchmark Hang Seng Index, fell on profit- taking Monday, while the other two new members of the index, Foxconn International and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, gained on active buying. In a move heralding an expected management reshuffle, an executive from Swire Pacific's Taiwan automotive subsidiary will take over from Stanley Hui Hon-chung as chief executive officer of Dragon Airlines, according to a source. Hong Kong-listed NewOcean Energy Holdings, which wholesales and retails liquefied petroleum gas in southern China, plans to invest US$17 million (HK$132.6 million) to boost its gas storage capacity to 15,600 tonnes and increase business. Hong Kong's largest pay-TV operator, i-Cable Communications, said Monday it will attempt to maintain this year's dividend payments at last year's level despite reporting a 59 percent fall in interim net profit due to higher programming costs and increased tax liabilities.
Hong Kong airlines will receive a modicum of relief from air traffic delays over mainland skies next year when Chinese authorities unveil another route to China as they look to ease congestion before the Olympics, according to one the aviation industry’s top executives.
Another senior executive of the China's largest manufacturer of coal-fired power generation equipment, Shanghai Electric Group, has been detained and is under investigation. China's third-largest home appliances and consumer electronics chain China Paradise Electronics Retail, which will be acquired by Gome Electrical Appliances, said its first half net profit slumped 89 percent, with earnings coming in far below analyst estimates. Beijing Capital Land, the property development arm of the Beijing municipal government, said operations in the past two months have not been adversely affected following the arrest of its chairman. China retail sales, the main indicator of consumer spending levels, rose 13.7 per cent in July from a year earlier to 601.2 billion yuan (HK$586.9 billion), official data showed on Monday. Aug 15, 2006
David Li Kwok-po, chairman and chief executive of Bank of East Asia, expects BEA's market share in Hong Kong to shrink significantly in 10 years as competition intensifies and the market matures. Some fear the golden credit-card- swiping days will soon end if the government pushes through a proposed 5 percent goods and services tax. The government will try to rally public support for a broadened tax base following a rethink of its strategy for the consultation on a goods and services tax (GST), which has so far met overwhelming opposition. Opposition among political and social groups to the introduction of a goods and services tax (GST) is gaining community backing, with the second public protest in a month being organized. Hong Kong now stands on the brink of a monumental tipping point. For the past 150 years, the government has had free rein to reclaim, sell and plan every inch of land in the territory. But decades of disputable planning, coupled with the public's increasing attention to quality of life, are propelling the territory into a new era. "Within the next 10 years there will be a dramatic change. People are going to say: `No! This isn't what we want,"' predicted Christine Loh Kung-wai, head of think-tank Civic Exchange. "We'll be tearing down roads and reshaping Hong Kong." At the center of this approaching backlash is the territory's most prized asset: Victoria Harbour. Currently, the public stands to lose three of the last remaining prime pieces of waterfront land to traditional planning methods: Central reclamation, Kai Tak and West Kowloon. The plans for these sites, drawn up in the late 1980s, have in recent months sparked heated debate over the government's "outdated" urban planning in the light of Hong Kong's shifting identity. "We've gone too far, and people are starting to wonder: `Can we continue like this?"' Institute of Architects vice president Vincent Ng Wing-shun said. In the past decade, a chasm has steadily grown between the attitudes of the government and the people towards urban planning. Since the handover in 1997, the public has experienced a "paradigm shift," Ng said. The people have departed from the "city in the sky" vision - once a symbol of a prosperous metropolis - and are now questioning whether all those skyscrapers, highways and flyovers circling the harbor are conducive to their vision of a "home." Moreover, the public is finally shedding its "die-hard mentality" of feeling helpless over the whims of the government, said Albert Lai Kwong-tak, chairman of the Council for Sustainable Development.
In a small sliver of space where performance art and sustainable development intersect, a group of artists is launching a campaign to save Central's venerable Star Ferry clock tower - and maintain what they call an historic piece of Hong Kong's bustling downtown core. Following the desecration of 29 tombstones at the weekend, families of civil servants buried at Gallant Garden appeal for stricter security at the cemetery honouring those who die in the line of duty.
After eight years of often bitter wrangling, the Zhuhai government is on the verge of a final settlement that will see foreign creditors of its bankrupt overseas investment arm, Zhu Kuan Group, accept about one-third of the US$1.3 billion they are owed.
The towering trade balance tipped the scales for the third straight month, topping US$14.6 billion in July. At the current pace, the bilateral deficit with the US will be 50% higher than last year’s record US$102 billion. Just before the new numbers were made public, the PBoC issued a report that suggested it would be open to a further revaluation of the RMB as a means of controlling the trade imbalance. The central bank’s statement, while by no means definitive, was certainly welcomed by American manufacturers as well as many congressmen, who have been lobbying China to effect such a change for years. Meanwhile, a new report from UBS cast doubt on how effectively revaluation could reduce the deficit. Long a magnet for foreign investment, China is now developing a fear of foreign takeovers that has prompted calls for a new body to look more closely into certain business deals. Recently there was an unprecedented closed-door meeting of top officials to discuss US private equity firm Carlyle's bid to takeover Xugong, a Chinese construction equipment manufacturer. The government has also been targeting foreign buyers of real estate for special restrictions. And this week a Goldman Sachs bid for a Chinese meat processor has run into a wall at the Ministry of Commerce, while Germany-based Schaeffler’s attempted takeover of a Chinese state-owned firm is under investigation. National security is the premise of most of the recent suspicion, as certain factions of the government have questioned the waves of foreign money pouring into the country as a possible threat to domestic firms, especially in “strategic sectors”. Meanwhile, FDI looked to be leveling off after years of growth. The total value of Chinese imports and exports from January to July 2006 was US$ 941.85 billion, increasing by 24.8% against the same period of last year. Chinese President Hu Jintao on Saturday met with Ted Stevens, acting president of the United States Senate in Beijing and pledged to further Sino-U.S. ties.
Entering into the United States market would cost Chinese exporters more if an anti-dumping bill was signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush, a Chinese trade researcher said on Sunday. Chinese pop diva Faye Wong's husband, mainland Chinese actor Li Yapeng confirmed the couple's newborn daughter has received surgery for a cleft lip in the U.S.
China's net import of crude oil rose by 17.6 per cent year on year in the first half of 2006, due to the rapid economic growth and booming automobile purchases. China has issued a new regulation on compensation and resettlement for farmers whose land is acquired to build large and medium-sized water control and hydropower projects. China Merchants Bank Co., the second-largest publicly traded lender on the mainland, said it received regulatory approval to raise about $2.4 billion this year in a Hong Kong share sale.
TravelSky Technology, the mainland's dominant airline reservation firm, is in talks with its largest overseas counterparts about starting a joint venture that would upgrade China's air ticketing system in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, people familiar with the situation said. Aug 14, 2006
A battle to step up residential property sales this month is being waged between two leading Hong Kong developers attempting to make up a potential shortfall in their combined sales target of HK$10 billion for the year.
Trading in the shares of Hong Kong- listed Wumart Stores, Beijing's top supermarket operator, was suspended Friday, pending an announcement on the share merger reform program of its Shanghai-listed subsidiary. Shares of Li & Fung soared almost 5percent following an upgrade in its earnings forecast and improved ratings in the wake of better-than-expected results reported by the company. The China Banking Regulatory Commission has issued documents to several Hong Kong banks wanting to start yuan-denominated businesses in the mainland, outlining how they should first register as an official bank, said a source close to a local bank. Notices of doctors' basic services and fees could soon appear in newspapers and journals after a High Court judge ruled the Medical Council of Hong Kong's Professional Code of Conduct was disproportionately restrictive and denied the public access to information of legitimate interest. Tight security measures were enforced at Hong Kong International Airport Friday, particularly for passengers bound for the United States and Britain. The government has invited 33 prominent businessmen, professionals and academics to a summit to determine how Hong Kong could best benefit from the mainland's 11th five-year development plan. The Urban Renewal Authority should ensure the new Kwun Tong town center is redeveloped in tandem with adjacent districts so that it will not become an isolated regional hub in East Kowloon, Town Planning Board members said. Passengers at Asian airports faced delays and were stopped from taking electronics and liquids on board US-bound flights on Friday as security was stepped up after British police foiled an alleged plot to blow up planes over the Atlantic Ocean. Hong Kong plans to do more to combat domestic violence and human trafficking, Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Sandra Lee Suk-yee told the United Nations overnight.
China's industrial producer prices increased by 3.6 percent in July over the same period in 2005, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday. The appreciation of China's currency of Renminbi (RMB) is speeding up, with the daily benchmark value rising to a new high of 7.9688 yuan against US$1 yesterday. China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, or Sinopec, Asia's largest refiner, is buying oil and not privatizing its ethylene unit, Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical, according to a source familiar with the company. Aug 11 - 13, 2006
The stock price of aircraft maintenance services provider Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company jumped 11.82 percent to HK$102.20 - a record - after it announced better-than-expected interim results and declared a fivefold increase in dividend Tuesday.
Richard Li Tzar-kai has scotched rumors that former chief secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang will be part of a new board of directors for the Hong Kong Economic Journal, in which he has just acquired a 50 percent stake. Conglomerate Swire Pacific on Thursday posted an 8.2 per cent increase in net profit in the first half-year, boosted by gains from the revaluation of its investment properties. Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen on Thursday stressed the importance of equipping young people with more skills to handle today's increasingly competitive job market. Hong Kong's newest film festival doesn't feature Jackie Chan or Jet Li kicking down doors and punching villains. This one is all about prostitutes. The inaugural three-day Hong Kong Sex Workers' Film Festival that starts on Friday is an under-funded but comprehensive look at the lives of prostitutes across Asia - told by the sex workers themselves. The festival, hosted by the Hong Kong sex worker support group Zi Teng, aims to offer an alternative to the stylised and stereotypical portrayals of prostitutes in mainstream cinema, curator Yau Ching said. The nine-film program includes contributions from Canada, the United States, Taiwan, India and Hong Kong. The films are not only about sex workers, but are either made entirely by them or in conjunction with a director. Ms Yau, who teaches cultural studies at Hong Kong's Lingnan University, said that mainstream filmmakers tend to take a "whore or Madonna" approach to depicting prostitutes, painting them as either victim or predator. She said she hopes to break such stereotypes by presenting a series of documentaries that address the day-to-day realities of prostitution from the perspective of sex workers. "Very few films talk about their job specifically or their relationship with society as a sex worker," she said. Letting the subjects tell their own stories offers a unique viewpoint, Yau said. "They [prostitutes] try to support a family, just like other mothers, so their self-perception, the level of self-respect is different," she said. Among the offerings is The Story of the Taipei Prostitutes, about a campaign to fight a ban on prostitution in Taiwan's capital. Another short film outlines the "sex worker's manifesto" drafted at the first National Conference of Sex Workers in Calcutta, India, in 1997. Two films revolve around pioneer sex worker activist Carol Leigh, who is credited with coining the term "sex worker" and who founded the San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Video Festival. One obvious gap is the lack of films from mainland China, where unlike in Hong Kong sex work is illegal. Curator Yau said she knows of underground films about sex workers in China but didn't have the resources to bring them to Hong Kong. Ms Yau, who volunteered her services to Zi Teng, said the festival was organized on a shoestring budget. Filmmakers donated their movies and a friend offered cheap printing services for publicity materials. The films will be shown at Zi Teng's small office space that accommodates about 50 people, located in a run-down pink building that also houses an hourly motel, or "love hotel." Another obstacle has been what organizers allege is government harassment. Zi Teng staff member Elaine Lam said the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department called the group on Monday ordering them to obtain a license for the film festival, saying the public event turns its offices into an entertainment venue. Lam suspects bias, characterizing the film festival as a small-scale event that doesn't justify a strict interpretation of the law. Organizers have sidestepped the legal problem by asking ticket buyers to join Zi Teng, hence making the film festival a private, members-only activity. "A lot of groups organize film showings. Officials haven't tried to enforce the law on them," she said. Asked for comment on Wednesday, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department didn't respond immediately. Sex work is not illegal in Hong Kong, but it is against the law to solicit for business, or live off the earnings of prostitution of others.
China's newly-built railway to Tibet will be extended some 270 km from Lhasa to the region's second largest city of Xigaze next year, a local official said Wednesday. The project is expected to take three years, said Yu Yungui, executive vice commissioner with the Administrative Office of Xigaze Prefecture in Tibet Autonomous Region, at a news conference in the regional capital of Lhasa.
Shanghai's most expensive housing project, Tomson Riviera, has sold four apartments in less than a week after it failed to sell a single unit in nine months. The company's website showed that three apartments were reserved, at an average price of 69 million yuan (8.6 million U.S.dollars) per unit, by two buyers. The first flat sold earlier this month was priced at 130 million yuan (16.2 million dollars). The three buyers are all overseas Chinese. The developer refused to release details of the buyers. One of them booked two units, on the 12th and 13th floor. Weighing in at an average of more than 115,000 yuan (13,580 dollars) per square meter, the apartment block, developed by the Hong Kong-listed Tomson Group Ltd, takes an "incomparable location" overlooking Shanghai's scenic riverside Bund area. China's first strategic oil reserve will be completed in August and go into operation in October, said sources with the National Development and Reform Commission. Direct-selling firms that violate the regulations on direct sales will have their business license revoked, said a circular issued by the Ministry of Commerce. Shares of Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical, China's largest ethylene producer by capacity, fell after the company warned of a loss in first-half net profit due to high international oil prices making refining unprofitable. China Construction Bank is eyeing Bank of America's Asian subsidiary's branch assets in Hong Kong and Macau as the Beijing-based bank's first acquisition target in the region, sources close to the company said Wednesday.
Aug 10, 2006
Standard Chartered, the British-based emerging markets bank, on Monday posted a solid increase in interim net profits, helped by its acquisition of Korea First Bank last year. Former Akai Holdings chairman James Ting filed an application of appeal in the High Court on Tuesday against his conviction and six-year jail sentence for false accounting. US doughnut maker Krispy Kreme began dipping into the massive Chinese-speaking market on Tuesday by opening a shop in Hong Kong - China's richest city. The initial response wasn't overwhelming. Several dozen people - a mix of Chinese and foreigners - lingered in the 180-square metre shop tucked down a side street in the busy Causeway Bay shopping district. One common complaint was that the doughnuts were too sweet. "It's suitable for kids, but for adults, especially women, we're afraid of getting fat," insurance agent Moon Ip said. Still, she predicted success for the doughnut chain, saying, "Hong Kong people like to try new things." The Hong Kong shop marks Krispy Kreme's debut on Chinese soil and only its second foray into East Asia. So far, Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Corp. has nine shops in South Korea, but it's expanding aggressively in other parts of the region.
German automaker Audi AG said it sold 38,838 vehicles in China (including Hong Kong) in the first six months of this year, compared to 19,996 in the same period of last year. China's consumer price index (CPI), a key inflation index, will rise about 2 percent year-on-year throughout 2006, the Ministry of Commerce predicted in a recent report. The world's leading retailer Wal-Mart saw its third trade union in China set up over the weekend in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province, just a week after its first trade union was formed in a store in East China's Fujian Province. Thirty-one employees of Wal-Mart's Xinjiekou store in Nanjing elected their first trade union committee, and a 22-year-old mid-level management employee named Wu Yinzheng, who has a university education background, was elected chairman. Wu vowed in the election that the committee would safeguard the legal rights and interests of employees according to the laws of the country, and try to maintain a smooth relationship between employees and employers. Within the committee, a financial department and women's federation were also formed during the Saturday election. According to Chen Siming, chairman of the Nanjing Federation of Trade Unions, he and fellow workers had tried to talk operators of Wal-Mart Nanjing branch into setting up a trade union ever since its establishment in 2004, but got no reply from management. So Chen tried direct contact with Wal-Mart employees, which finally led to the formation of the new trade union. China Mobile Ltd, the world's biggest cell-phone operator by users, may be among the first companies approved to sell Chinese depositary receipts, or CDRs, after the government eased regulations on domestic securities issues.
Aug 9, 2006
New World China Land, a unit of New World Development, will invest more than 3 billion yuan (HK$2.92 billion) to build a commercial and residential project in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. Two top executives of Hong Kong- listed Shanghai Electric Group are being detained and under investigation by mainland police for suspected economic crimes, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported Monday.
Former Hong Kong actress and television personality Rosaline Chan Yee- hing, who went on to become the wife of one of Malaysia's richest men, Francis Yeoh Sock-ping, has died after a seven-year battle with cancer.
Gas production has begun at Chunxiao gasfield in the East China Sea, according to an online announcement by one of the nation's three largest State-owned oil companies, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). China is revising a law to make it possible to impose harsher punishment on energy lavishment, the government said Sunday, at a time when fast economic growth is unabatedly costing excessive energy resources. Rising costs have not scared off foreign companies who still rank Shanghai as the best place to invest in China, according to local authorities.
Win Hanverky Holdings, the largest apparel supplier for the Adidas Group in China, hopes to raise up to HK$600 million via its initial public offering next month, in a move to fund capital expansion to increase its production capacity and distribution business, people familiar with the situation said. Aug 8, 2006
The public's confidence in the legal profession will be shattered by new rules that will allow law enforcement agencies to bug lawyers and their clients, according to legislators debating the controversial covert surveillance bill last night.
The race to head the WHO is shaping up as a battle between Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun and Japan's Shigeru Omi, and will be decided by whether Beijing can leverage support from developing nations, says an infectious diseases expert. Hong Kong's Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun is facing competition from the following five rivals in the race for the US$217,000 a year job of WHO director-general.
World's leading retailer Wal-Mart saw its second trade union in China established on Friday morning in southern city of Shenzhen, just six days after its first trade union being formed in a store in Fujian Province. The central African country of Chad is reported to have severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan, and switch its recognition and open official ties with China. CNOOC has said gas production had begun from an oil and gas field in the East China Sea, a territory that is the focus of a drawn-out dispute with Japan. David Stern, the commissioner of the National Basketball Association (NBA), said Sunday that he is planning to restore the NBA China Game next year.
Xinao Group, China's leading private gas company, has secured a US$145 million investment from International Finance Corp to bankroll its US$300 million coal-to-dimethyl ether project. Ducks, fish, frogs and even snakes should be reintroduced to mainland paddy fields for more environmentally sustainable rice farming, replacing the hazardous pesticides and chemical fertilizers, says a report released in Beijing yesterday. Top US home-appliance chain Best Buy is considering further acquisitions in China, including Beijing Dazhong Electrical Appliances, as the retailer prepares to open its first store in the country. Guangfa Securities, China's sixth-largest brokerage, is under investigation by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange for possible insider trading, according to sources. Aug 7, 2006
Sincere group managing director Philip Ma King-huen is strongly opposed to the proposed goods and services tax, which he believes will increase the department store operator's operating costs, with more than HK$10 million needed for additional staff and technology resources. Lawmakers are sleeping easier, and in their own beds, after progress on the government's spying bill "obviously improved" Friday - enough to avert an overnight session. The difficulty of getting into one of Hong Kong's eight universities is forcing many students to seek higher education opportunities in the mainland and overseas, according to some of the students and parents attending the Hong Kong International Education Expo. A Hong Kong government contractor who was sued by a Singaporean subcontractor over the e-Channel border system has, in turn, sued the subcontractor, claiming the firm obtained payments from the contractor under "threat" of disabling the system. Hong Kong would have a festival next week to launch the two-year countdown to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, a government spokesman said on Friday
By any standards, this year's most talked about movie in Hong Kong is short, poorly filmed and grainy. However, what it lacks in production values, the 10-minute home-made clip candidly shot of a middle-aged man berating a youngster on a bus makes up for in drama, dialogue and humour.
Chinese airlines, plagued by sky-high fuel prices, were hit again with a price increase as jet fuel rose another 5 percent, Shanghai Securities News reported Thursday. Recent daily fluctuations of the Renminbi (RMB)'s exchange rate has widened but remains well below the government-imposed cap on daily moves of the currency, Shanghai Securities News reported Friday. China's top economic planner has ordered local governments and banks to inspect newly opened industrial projects as it bids to weed out unauthorized and excess investments to slow torrid economic expansion. The mainland's admission that it was the world's largest producer of sulfur dioxide last year highlights the cost of breakneck economic growth and the weakness of government enforcement of pollution standards, academics and environmentalists said yesterday. Aug 5 - 6, 2006
Convenience Retail Asia, operator of more than 300 Circle K convenience stores in Hong Kong and southern China, said Wednesday that net profit for the first half climbed nearly 9 percent year on year to HK$32.44 million, despite stiff competition from its much larger rival, 7-Eleven.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department’s Centre for Food Safety announced on Thursday that the processing of applications for importing Dutch poultry meat would be suspended. A foreign law firm registered in Hong Kong and its corporate services arm on Thursday continued its bid for a court order declaring a raid of its offices by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) be declared unlawful.
China has been inviting bids for three categories of basic tasks in preparation for launching an assembly plant of Airbus A320 jets in north China's largest port city of Tianjin. French construction giant Lafarge, the world's largest cement maker, plans to double its investments in China in the coming years, the company's chairman said on Wednesday. Typhoon Prapiroon roared toward southern China on Thursday packing winds of up to 130 kph, as authorities cancelled train and ferry services and evacuated tens of thousands of people amid warnings of severe destruction. China was building a 220 billion yuan (HK$215 billion) railway line from Beijing to the southern economic hub of Shenzhen and foreign investors would be invited to join the project, media reported on Thursday. Lenovo Group, the world's No3 maker of personal computers, on Thursday said profits in the latest quarter plunged nearly 90 per cent compared with a year earlier as it restructured after its purchase of IBM's PC business.
Monday's decision by the Bush administration to authorise the export to China of more than 900 tonnes of bulk graphite, used for making plastics, comes as the US reviews policies governing the export of goods and technologies to the mainland which have been controlled for reasons of national security and foreign policy.
Air China set the price range for its domestic initial public offering on Thursday, with the national flag carrier aiming to raise as much as 8 billion yuan (HK$7.8 billion) from the share issue. China's biggest Web portal, Sina.com, on Thursday said second-quarter earnings edged up to US$10.4 million (HK$81 million), boosted by a 45 per cent jump in advertising revenues. Aug 4, 2006
Former Hong Kong health chief Margaret Chan said on Wednesday that if she¡¦s elected to be the World Health Organisation's next director-general, she will be neutral and won't favor China - which nominated her for the post. Convenience Retail Asia, operator of more than 300 Circle K convenience stores in Hong Kong and southern China, said Wednesday that net profit for the first half climbed nearly 9 percent year on year to HK$32.44 million, despite stiff competition from its much larger rival, 7-Eleven. Casino mogul Stanley Ho Hung-sun's Sociedade de Jogos de Macau was set to launch a US$1.9 billion (HK$14.8 billion) initial public offering in Hong Kong after a Macau court declined his sister's request to block the IPO, a Hong Kong newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The new controlling shareholder of Huabao International Holdings, which recently sold its personal flavors and fragrances business to the Hong Kong- listed vehicle, is seeking to raise up to HK$1.52 billion through a share placement, according to the sale document obtained by institutional investors. As the identity of an alleged buyer of the Shaw Brothers' media empire remains a mystery amid repeated denials by various Hong Kong and mainland tycoons and influential people, stock prices of Shaw Brothers and Television Broadcasts began to lose their momentum Wednesday. Hutchison Telecommunications International Limited, a unit of tycoon Li Ka- shing's Hutchison Whampoa conglomerate, said it will take action to thwart Essar Group's attempt to terminate the sale agreement for GSM mobile operator BPL Mumbai.
The Civil Aviation Department is investigating an incident Saturday in which a Dragonair Airbus and a Northwest Airlines Boeing 744, both bound for Japan's Narita Airport from Hong Kong, came within a vertical distance of about 300 feet [90 meters] and a horizontal distance of 3.5 nautical miles of one another.
As speculators tried to evade the tax, home sales in big cities like Shanghai and Beijing had jumped in the past week.Home owners have to pay 20 percent of their net profits in individual income tax when selling as of August 1.
Guangdong and Hong Kong, after years of negotiations and drafting work, have agreed to launch the long-proposed Emission Trading Pilot Scheme by the end of this year, paving the way for power companies at both places to reach the emission reduction targets by 2010. Taipei will allow more business professionals and tourists from the mainland to visit the island despite the hardline cross-strait policy adopted by Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian. Aug 3, 2006
Hong Kong needs to build a third general cargo terminal at the airport (HKIA) to boost competition among operators and defend its market-leading position against ambitious regional rivals, according to a key report commissioned by the Airport Authority.
Hong Kong-listed Shanghai Real Estate, a major developer in the mainland's largest city, is paying 204 million yuan (HK$198.9 million) to acquire 51 percent controlling interest in a development company in the northeastern city of Shenyang. Jinan Iron and Steel and Laiwu Steel, two of China's largest steel companies, on Tuesday said they planned to join forces to boost their presence in a crowded and competitive marketplace.
Shanghai property prices fell more than 10 per cent last week from the week before, in a sign government moves to cool speculation are having an impact. Nearly 7,000 cases of commercial bribery, involving about 1.96 billion yuan, have been investigated in the year since a special taskforce was formed to tackle the problem, state media reported yesterday. Shanghai aims to become the first mainland city to put hydrogen-powered cars on its roads on a large scale within the next five years as the government tries to reduce air pollution, a company involved in the project said yesterday. Aug 2, 2006
Hong Kong should maximise opportunities arising from recent developments in Guangdong, Greater Pearl River Delta Business Council chairman Victor Fung Kwok-king said on Monday. Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen on Monday stressed his support for former health chief Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun in her bid to be the next director of the World Health Organization. Coastal Greenland, a Hong Kong-listed mainland property developer, says it will continue to add to its residential land bank even though sales in key cities have fallen since May, when Beijing introduced more austerity measures designed to cool the property market.
EVA Precision Industrial Holdings, a maker of components for printers and photocopiers, said first-quarter orders rose at least 10 per cent after its new mainland plant started operations in May.
China is accelerating its construction of renewable energy projects across the country, with hydropower and wind-power capacity to reach 180 million kilowatts and 5 million kilowatts by 2010.
With extension work already underway at the Capital International Airport, plans have been unveiled for a second airport for Beijing.
Aug 1, 2006
China's national broadcaster CCTV is eyeing Television Broadcasts, Hong Kong's dominant free-to-air broadcaster owned by Shaw Brothers, a mainland source said Sunday. A New York State judge tossed out a lawsuit filed by real-estate baron Donald Trump, who claimed former partners that sold a swathe of Manhattan property for US$1.75 billion (HK$13.65 billion) didn't charge enough, a representative for the partners, said.
The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation has installed flashing lights at one of its busiest stations to curb accidents on its escalators since the disclosure that about half of all escalator accidents in Hong Kong occur at railway stations.
Officials in four regions of the mainland have refused to allow their citizens to attend a week-long gathering in Hong Kong for Catholic youths because it is seen as an "anti-China event". Fiscal reserves had to be built up to prepare for future economic cycles, Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen said yesterday as he reiterated the need for a goods and services tax. Four developers submitted bids to build the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corp's Tuen Mun station residential project yesterday after the Lands Department slashed the land premium it is seeking by 28 per cent. A group of 55 clients of failed brokerage Tiffit Securities plans to file a lawsuit in what could be the first attempt by Hong Kong retail investors to win compensation through the courts for losses to their accounts.
The first batch of crude oil has been successfully piped from Kazakhstan to its oil tank field in northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. According to the report by the Economic Forecasting Department of the State Information Center, measures taken by the central government are taking effect, averting the risks of overheating and starting to cool the economy. Ping An Insurance (Group) Company, China second largest life insurer, has joined the consortium led by French bank Societe Generale to bid for an 85 percent interest in Guangdong Development Bank.
Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, saw its first trade union set up yesterday - in southeastern Fujian province Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), China's biggest chipmaker, reported an unexpected profit after six quarters of losses, thanks to a tax benefit that masked a larger operating loss. ELong, a mainland online travel service provider, posted its first profit in the second quarter, more than a year and a half after listing on the Nasdaq exchange. July 31, 2006
Dealmaker Francis Leung Pak-to has spent HK$22 million to increase his stake in PCCW to 23.04 percent, the first disclosed share purchase since he became the major shareholder of the city's largest telecom carrier earlier this month. The Hong Kong dollar retreated from a three-week high Friday after the Hong Kong Monetary Authority reaffirmed that the currency peg with the US dollar will remain intact.
Former secretary for security Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee and Civic Party leader Audrey Eu Yuet-mee exchanged jibes in a television program, with Ip suggesting the newly formed Civic Party favored universal suffrage because it wanted to become the ruling party. Hong Kong shares surged to their highest level in almost three months yesterday as growing investor hopes that global interest rates may be near their peak spurred rallies in property and banking stocks. The Hong Kong Exchange Fund, a reserve to back the city's currency, earned $30.7 billion in investment income in the first half, up 167 per cent from a year ago, thanks to the robust stock market and the weak US dollar.
French President Jacques Chirac met in Paris on Thursday with visiting Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission Guo Boxiong. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao stressed the need to control land usage Tuesday and approved a series of labor and social security regulations for the 11th Five Year Plan from 2006 to 2010. From February to May, some 23.3 billion US dollars of hot money flowed into China aiming to cash in on the Renminbi appreciation. The hot money can often be calculated by using the foreign exchange reserves to deduct the foreign direct investment (FDI) value and the amount of trade surplus. Based on this calculation, hot money in China reached 1.02 billion US dollars, 4.45 billion US dollars, 5.31 billion US dollars, and 12.5 billion US dollars respectively from February to May. Meanwhile, economists¡¯ prediction that the US dollar would further depreciate in the future is making more hot money come to China. The railway to Tibet, opened this month to great fanfare, is developing cracks in its concrete structures while its permafrost foundation is sinking and cracking, according to the state press. The State Council has announced tighter controls over land supply for property and industrial development projects, pledging to increase compensation to farmers for seized land and impose higher fees on land transactions to combat widespread illegal land use. Mainland authorities have admitted that food safety concerns, rampant counterfeiting and shoddy products remain a big headache, but insist they are a "true reflection" of China's status as an underdeveloped economy. Internet portal Sohu.com on Friday said net income edged up 1 per cent in the second quarter, while revenues jumped 35 per cent, helped by strong World Cup advertising sales. July 28 - 30, 2006
The Hong Kong Airport Authority plans to take an unspecified stake in a cargo-handling facility at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport to boost its investment in the mainland, as well as capitalize on strong cargo growth in eastern China. Hong Kong-listed Clear Media, the mainland's largest outdoor advertising company, said it plans to launch an "Olympics sales package" at year-end in its attempts to meet the unprecedented demand leading up to the 2008 Beijing event. Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam- kuen has laid down four "mosts" for anyone aspiring to lead Hong Kong in the fray over the city's top post, but he remained tight-lipped about his intention for a rerun next year.
Hong Kong shares surged to their highest level in almost three months yesterday as growing investor hopes that global interest rates may be near their peak spurred rallies in property and banking stocks.
Businessmen Ngan In Leng and Ngan Iek are suing Golden Resorts Group managing director and chief executive Pollyana Chu for almost HK$500 million. The Ngans and three relatives sold the Casa Real casino hotel to Hong Kong-listed Golden Resorts for HK$750 million in cash and 110 million shares last year. The mall wars are heating up, with the Wynn Macau and Venetian Macau casino hotels jostling for upscale tenants. Wynn, a US$1.1 billion (HK$8.58 billion) facility that is set to open in September, announced the signing of an agreement this week for a Piaget watch shop. A person familiar with efforts to fill the hotel's 28,000 square feet of retail space said fashion brands Prada, Gucci, Chanel, Giorgio Armani and Celine are also set to join jeweler Tiffany & Co in the Wynn. William Weidner, president and chief executive of Venetian developer Las Vegas Sands, this month boasted to analysts that his 870,000-square-foot mall will include Franck Muller and Roger Dubuis watch shops, Mikimoto pearl and Montblanc pen shops and an outlet of the Dunhill fashion chain. He said the mall, to open next year, had so far filled 85 shops, representing 30 percent of available space. Separately, Sands indicated a revised plan for the Venetian's casino, putting the number of tables at 750, up from 585, and the number of slots at 4,000, revised from 5,000.
Foreign banks have been urged to enhance their risk management strategies, as many lenders in the city have ineffective risk control.
China welcomes the United States Trade Representative's decision not to accept a Section 301 petition on Chinese workers' rights. The Copyright Union of the Internet Society of China wants to streamline copyright infringement notification procedures for internet companies in order to better protect online copyright.
The Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor scheme, or QDII, introducing in the Chinese mainland, provides new opportunities for RMB financial services in Hong Kong, said the Bank of East Asia Wednesday. In a press release issued yesterday, the Shanghai branch of the China Banking Regulatory Commission said that recent inspections of foreign banks found they had failed to "localize" risk management. China has approved a US$5 billion (HK$39 billion) oil refinery joint venture with Kuwait for Guangdong, according to the state media, marking another major development in its quest for energy. Mainland authorities have admitted that food safety concerns, rampant counterfeiting and shoddy products remain a big headache, but insist they are a "true reflection" of China's status as an underdeveloped economy. Ping An Insurance yesterday signed a letter of intent to buy stakes in three expressways in the coal mining province of Shanxi in what is likely to be the first infrastructure investment by a mainland insurance company. China Citic Bank, the mainland's seventh-largest lender by assets, plans to sell a 5 per cent stake to Barclays, Britain's third-largest bank by market value, in the run-up to a US$2 billion initial public offering in Hong Kong, sources said. July 27, 2006
Beijing is confident that Hong Kong's former director of health, Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun, will be elected the new head of the World Health Organisation, a Health Ministry official said yesterday. Fitch Ratings has raised the outlook from stable to positive for its AA- long-term foreign currency rating for Hong Kong, reflecting the city's improved fiscal health.
Beijing aims to limit Hong Kong and
Taiwan residents as well as overseas Chinese to buying one home in the capital
as part of rules targeting speculation, a newspaper reported.
China on Tuesday announced the establishment of the China Council for International Investment Promotion (CCIP), a national organization aimed at promoting international investment for both Chinese companies and foreigners. An Israeli air strike destroyed a base of the UN observer force on the border in southern Lebanon on Tuesday night, killing four UN observers, including one Chinese. Beijing has invited the World Health Organisation to send experts to take part in retrospective tests on a possible first human H5N1 death discovered on the mainland. Beijing has for the first time allowed North Korean defectors to seek asylum in the United States in what is believed to be an attempt to express its dissatisfaction over Pyongyang's recent missile tests. Gome Electrical Appliances Holdings, China's biggest electronics retailer, will offer $5.27 billion in shares and cash to buy out rival China Paradise Electronics Retail in a bid to ease falling margins and strengthen its position amid intensifying competition. China's pension fund has chosen Citibank and National Trust as custodian banks for all its international business.
July 26, 2006
Ocean Grand Holdings and Ocean Grand Chemicals - under investigation by Hong Kong securities regulators over their business dealings - have filed for court solvency protection. Hong Kong & China Gas, or Towngas, is in talks to invest US$100 million (HK$780 million) initially in a coal gasification joint venture in Shanxi province as the company mulls diversification in the mainland. Five Hong Kong-based hedge fund managers managing total assets of US$6.573 billion (HK$51.27 billion) have been ranked among the top 10 of Asia's largest hedge fund firms, according to a New York-based trade publication.
The Housing Authority has reached a settlement of some HK$235 million in compensation with an insurer of the contractor at the center of the Tin Chung Court short-piling case - less than half the amount awarded by the court. Global commerce talks at the World Trade Organization appeared on the brink of collapse on Monday as top powers stumbled in attempts to agree on steps toward liberalising trade in farm and manufactured goods. Las Vegas Sands will double its investment in casinos in Macau, spending more than US$8 billion (HK$62 billion) there and on a neighbouring island over the next four to six years, a report said Monday.
Viva Macau will expand its route network to destinations outside Southeast Asia by the second quarter of next year with South China’s newest budget carrier looking to offer flights to India and North America.
Investors are moving in on the debt-laden Guangdong Luoding Railway Corp, which is being publicly auctioned to raise funds to extend its tracks. The board of the China Construction Bank has accepted the resignation of its president, Chang Zhenming, the bank said in a statement on Monday. A spokesman for the bank, Hu Changmiao, said Chang's departure is to "meet the demand of the nation's financial reform and development," while expressing "deep regret and reluctance" over his application. Chang will work for the CITIC Group, a consortium including a national shareholding bank and a securities broker, the spokesman said, adding his successor will be announced soon after. The bank's board meeting spoke highly of the efforts and contributions made by Chang in pushing forward the CCB's reform and development. The CCB took the lead among China's "big four" state banks to go public in Hong Kong last October, when its shares met a strong trading debut, as investors were eager to buy into China's robust economy.
China will reduce tax rebates on exports of resource-intensive and environmentally-harmful products, the as-yet unreleased policy is scheduled to take effect around September or October. All the 47 securities companies having publicized their half-year reports witnessed profit, ending their long-time deficit period when the Chinese stock market was bearish. The net profit of these 47 securities dealers totaled US$1.07b in the first half. Beijing-backed CITIC Group will soon announce a management reshuffle, with the long-expected retirement of chairman Wang Jun, along with the promotion of vice chairman and president Kong Dan and the return of Chang Zhenming, sources said Monday.
Shanghai-listed Bright Dairy and Food, a leading mainland dairy food producer, said its parent company plans to merge with three other firms to form one of the country's biggest food groups. July 25, 2006
The Securities and Futures Commission will apply to the High Court to appoint an administrator to return shares to the 700 clients of troubled broker Tiffit Securities, the commission says. Mid-sized hotel owner Regal Hotels International Holdings plans to raise as much as $6 billion selling units in a real estate investment trust after the summer, market sources said. A total of 14 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 1.81 billion U.S. dollars) surplus has been recorded for the 2005-06 financial year, according to HK's Financial Services and Treasury Bureau on Friday.
US President George W. Bush briefly met the mainland's top military officer and highlighted Sino-US co-operation on issues such as North Korea and military matters, the White House said. China's central bank will raise the deposit reserve ratio of banks, excluding rural cooperative banks and credit cooperatives, by 0.5 percentage points from August 15. Exactly a year after China's yuan was removed from its peg to the U.S. dollar, it maintained its snail's pace rise to hit a new high of 7.9897 to the dollar on Friday. The first stage of China's moon-orbiting program - the launching of the Chang'e-1 Lunar Orbiter - will cost as much as the construction of two kilometer-stretch of subway in Beijing.
July 24, 2006
In a move to beef up its presence in the mainland, Hang Lung Properties is investing more than 4 billion yuan (HK$3.88 billion) to build a commercial complex in Changsha, the capital city of Hunan province.
Emperor International Holdings, tycoon Albert Yeung Sau-shing's listed flagship, is planning to invest up to HK$10 billion in several new property projects on Hong Kong Island this fiscal year, as the company remakes itself as a pure property play following the proposed stock market spin-off of its brokerage business.
There will be no change in the HK$100,000 basic allowance on salaries tax should a goods and services tax be introduced, though the government is prepared to consider additional relief measures for the needy, according to Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen. Banking giant HSBC Holdings on Friday said it would buy all the outstanding shares in Panama-based Grupo Banistmo at US$52.63 each in an deal that would value the group at US$1.77 billion (HK$13.8 billion).
A total of 57 countries have accepted China's status as a market economy since the moment in April 2004 when New Zealand stood out as the first acceptor. The housing prices in 70 large-and medium-sized cities in China continued to rise in June, going up by 5.8 percent over the same period last year.
Shenzhen's economy grew by 13.5 per cent year on year in the first half of the year and the prices of luxury residential properties are up 50 per cent - but academics and officials insist it is not overheating.
China Eastern Airlines has confirmed it is in talks with Singapore Airlines and other foreign carriers as it seeks out potential strategic investors but insisted no deals had been reached. July 21 - 23, 2006
Bank of China (Hong Kong) has fired the first shot in the latest round of an ongoing mortgage price war among lenders by cutting its mortgage discount rate. This is to cash in on renewed residential property launches after the recent World Cup and to recover lost market share. Shui On Construction & Materials, controlled by businessman Vincent Lo Hong-sui, plans to raise HK$930 million by selling convertible bonds to institutional investors to fund current operational expenses and potential acquisitions, sources close to the transaction said. Link REIT, making the first bond issue by a Hong Kong real estate property trust, raised the size of the issue 50 percent to HK$3.6 billion amid a strong response to fixed-income assets.
Academics, legislators and educators have lined up to take pot shots at Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying- yen, a day after he said it is important to maintain "fairness" in introducing a goods and services tax across the board. They say the financial secretary is doing exactly the opposite. A $400 pay cut for Hong Kong's 228,000 foreign domestic helpers, imposed several months before a $400 monthly levy on their employers was implemented in 2003, was a legitimate government decision, the Court of Appeal ruled yesterday in a second blow for the maids. Liquidators launched a group action yesterday to gain US$206.67 million in compensation for 1,300 investors who lost money in the collapse of CSA Absolute Return Fund in one of Hong Kong's highest-profile hedge fund scandals. Xinjiang Non-ferrous Metal Group is planning to spin off its nickel business for a Hong Kong listing to raise up to US$200 million by the end of this year, taking advantage of the recent nickel price boom, according to market sources. Pacific Century Regional Developments, a Singapore-listed company 75 per cent owned by PCCW chairman Richard Li Tzar-kai, said it was not providing a loan to help fund Francis Leung Pak-to's planned acquisition of its 22.66 per cent stake in Hong Kong's dominant fixed-line telephone operator for $9.1 billion.
China would actively plan its deep space exploration in the next five years, focusing on lunar and Mars exploration and including international cooperation.
China's investment costs have been on the rise this year and slightly hurt the inflow of foreign direct investment over the first six months. China's largest oil producer announced Wednesday that it bought Russia's OAO Rosneft 66.2252 million listed shares for 500 million U.S. dollars at 7.55 U.S. dollars per share. China's on-line transactions are expected to reach one trillion yuan this year, a sharp rise from last year's 700 billion yuan.
Guangdong's economy is showing signs of overheating, with a first-half growth rate of 14.4 per cent year on year, 3.5 percentage points above the national rate and 1.8 percentage points up on the figure for the first half of last year. The Communist Party's anti-graft watchdog yesterday announced the punishment of eight local officials who had taken or offered bribes in exchange for promotion, in a move seen as part of Beijing's efforts to crack down on corruption amid a comprehensive leadership reshuffle of local authorities. A semi-official lawyers' group has called for major changes to the Criminal Procedure Law to give advocates greater rights of representation, including guaranteed and unfettered access to their clients within 48 hours of detention. The central government plans to sell a state-owned firm in the first public auction of a mainland railway operator, in a bid to raise 14.7 billion yuan by 2008 to fund a new rail line. July 20, 2006
The government says it will continue to liberalize the aviation market between Hong Kong and the mainland to promote competition among airlines in light of Cathay Pacific Airways' pending takeover of rival Dragon Airlines, a move that may result in near monopolies on certain routes.
Recent setbacks including A-380 delivery delay and the resignation of high-profile company figures will not affect the Airbus jet assembly line project in China's northern port city of Tianjin, Airbus China's vice president has said. The feasibility study of the project in the Binhai New Area (BNA) of Tianjin will be completed in September this year, Laurence Barron, Airbus senior vice president and Airbus China president, was quoted by the China Business News as saying on Monday. China will continue to play a larger role in manufacturing Airbus planes, he said. After the feasibility study is completed in September, Airbus will start building the assembly workshop in BNA, which is expected to be finished by the end of 2007, the newspaper said.
China's telecoms regulator has released a list of 102 companies engaged in illegal behaviour in the country's wireless value-added services industry in its latest effort to clean up the unruly sector.
Stockholders rejected Shenzhen Development Bank's share reform compensation plan, a move that will delay or even kill plans by General Electric (GE) of the United States to buy into the mainland's only foreign-controlled lender.
July 19, 2006
Hong Kong-listed Anhui Conch Cement, China's biggest cement producer, anticipates its profits could be increased by nearly 80 percent after acquiring various assets from its corporate parent and an affiliate, paying a total of 4.1 billion yuan (HK$3.99 billion) through the issuing of yuan-denominated A shares in the company.
The government will hold this fiscal year's first land auction today, after accepting a HK$14.43 million guaranteed minimum bid offered by a developer for a residential site at Cheung Sha on the southern part of Lantau Island. The government on Tuesday announced proposals for introducing a goods and services tax in Hong Kong, which authorities hope will broaden the tax base and bring in more revenue. Legislators from four leading political parties in Hong Kong on Tuesday expressed reservations about the government proposals for a goods and services tax, saying the levy would not be in the territory’s interests.
Hong Kong's jobless rate - which had been falling - has risen slightly to 5 per cent, latest statistics released on Tuesday showed. Research In Motion (RIM), the company behind the BlackBerry e-mail service and handsets, is expanding its Hong Kong operations to support a big push into the mainland and other Asia-Pacific markets.
Along with the more active foreign mergers and acquisitions are rising concerns over the loss of state-owned assets and low prices paid by foreigners in their takeovers.
China's top general has started a week-long US tour as part of the highest-level military exchanges between the two countries since 2001, a sign of warming ties and closer military links, analysts and state media say.
Nanjing Automobile, the new owner of MG Rover, on Monday announced a £10 million (HK$113 million) investment in the British vehicle maker's mothballed plant.
Chinese manufacturers will accelerate production of flat-panel television sets this year and next year to meet a nationwide demand spurred by the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, according to industry experts. July 18, 2006
Link REIT, which operates a portfolio of former Hong Kong Housing Authority shopping malls and car parks, will meet institutional investors today for its sale of HK$2.4 billion worth of bonds, market sources said. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country's top lender, aims to raise as much as US$21 billion (HK$163.8 billion) in what would be the world's biggest initial public offering in a dual Hong Kong and Shanghai listing in October, a source familiar with the situation said Monday. The Airport Authority's attempt to construct a giant permanent fuel depot in Tuen Mun to accommodate growing passenger and cargo traffic needs has received a major setback after the Court of Final Appeal effectively annulled its permit to build.
Hong Kong Polytechnic University's Community College has teamed with the British Council to offer free a English proficiency course for associate degree students as competition intensifies for full-fee-paying students. Cyberport has reached its year-end occupancy target of 70 percent by mid 2006 and is expected to rise to 90 percent by mid next year in the wake of strong economic recovery, the Legislative Council's information technology panel chief said. The government announced on Monday that Nicky Lo Kar-chun had been appointed as chairman of the Standing Commission on Civil Service Salaries and Conditions of Service. PCCW, which is seeking a $6.5 billion loan, has agreed to bankers' demands for stronger repayment safeguards in the wake of chairman Richard Li Tzar-kai's divestment of all but 3 per cent of his holding in the company, bankers said. International Finance Corp, the World Bank's investment arm, plans to invest in China's securities industry as aggressively as it has in the banking industry, where it has spent almost US$600 million in seven years.
The number of Chinese tourists to Europe is expected to rise, despite the strict visa policy in European embassies. Beijing Caissa International Travel Service said its visa successful rate reached 97.43 percent on average from the seven European embassies in the first half of this year, which can reflect the visa situation of EU nations. Since last July, EU nations carried out stricter visa policy to Chinese tourists and the number of Chinese tourists to Europe has been lingering. In the past year, Chinese government inspected and closed illegal travel agencies and foreign nations started promotion campaign, which pushed the growth of tourists. Experts said if tourists can provide true and complete application materials and choose qualified travel agencies, visa issues will not be their barriers to Europe. SPG Land Holdings, one of the largest property developers in Shanghai, plans to raise up to US$200 million (HK$1.56 billion) in an initial public offering in September, sources said. China's first-half economic data are expected to show that monetary and administrative measures to rein in investment and economic overheating have been ineffective, which will add to calls for further yuan appreciation and likely lead to further tightening moves. PetroChina, the mainland's largest oil producer, increased oil and natural gas output by 6.8 percent to 533.2 million barrels of oil equivalent in the first half, to meet the energy demands of the world's fastest-growing major economy.
July 17, 2006
A sharp jump in China's economic growth rate sparked speculation of an imminent interest rate increase in the mainland Thursday, dragging Hong Kong shares lower. Reducing government spending, modernizing the structure and management of the public sector and reviewing the bottom limit of the allowance on salaries would be better than imposing a Goods and Services Tax, according to two chambers of commerce. More banks have decided to follow HSBC's initiative to extend branch services to seven days a week, but industry analysts warn that smaller players will face cost pressures.
Hong Kong-listed CITIC Resources Holdings announced Wednesday that one of its wholly owned subsidiaries has entered into an agreement to acquire a 51 percent interest in a petroleum exploration and production project in Indonesia for US$97.4 million (HK$759.7 million).
The more than 9,000 police officers who provided security for the World Trade Organization's Sixth Ministerial Conference in Wan Chai last December deserved full marks for their handling of the violent protests on the closing days of the event, Commissioner of Police Dick Lee Ming-kwai said. The exact date for the official opening of the controversial Lantau cable car, at the Ngong Ping 360 attraction, is still undecided, after the original grand opening was postponed due to a series of glitches during a trial run last month, according to operator Skyrail-ITM.
Hong Kong furniture makers are concerned that the European furniture industry might soon lodge a complaint with the European Commission (EC) — and request anti-dumping measures against furniture products originating in the mainland. Uncertainty creates investment opportunity, so it is no surprise that the shifting, shadowy struggle for control over the assets of Hong Kong's dominant phone company, PCCW, has drawn the attention of hedge funds.
China's largest oil and gas producer announced it will invite foreign companies to bid on exploration rights in nine designated blocks of land in China's Tarim Basin, a well-known oil and gas field.
About 130 million carats (26,000 kg) of diamonds are mined across the world every year. Of those, around 3 million carats make their way onto the Chinese mainland to be crafted by some 20,000 workers into dazzling symbols. Twenty Chinese mainland companies, including four newcomers, rank among the 500 largest firms in the world as listed in Fortune magazine's latest Global 500 published on Wednesday. China's foreign trade has kept growing at the rate of over 30% for 5 years in a row, and the trade surplus is going up every year. However, China is going to change its "encouraging export" policy.
The Ministry of Public Security is ramping up efforts to wipe out gambling on soccer after a series of high-profile busts of online betting rings during the World Cup Finals. July 14 - 16, 2006
The Court of Final Appeal on Wednesday struck down a ruling that allowed police to carry out controversial government wiretaps, a move activists hailed as a victory for freedoms in Hong Kong. Hong Kong's highest court has issued a carefully calibrated verdict on the administration's surveillance regime, which will allow the government to continue its warrantless wiretapping while pushing ahead with plans to have lawmakers vote its new snooping and surveillance bill into law on August 2. PCCW shares ended the day's trade 1.96 per cent lower on Wednesday following their rout on Tuesday, driven down partly by investor worries over the unusual financing of chairman Richard Li Tzar-kai's sale of a 23 per cent stake for $9.2 billion.
Several major supermarket chains in Hong Kong have signed a "voluntary agreement on plastic bag reduction", Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao Sau-tung revealed on Wednesday. A tough proposed anti-spam law in Hong Kong could ultimately impose fines as high as $1 million and five years imprisonment, Commerce, Industry and Technology Secretary Joseph Wong Wing-ping said on Wednesday. Hong Kong would implement central slaughtering of live poultry by 2009, Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food York Chow Yat-ngok said on Wednesday. The Environment, Transport and Works Bureau said on Wednesday it accepted the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation’s explanations for fractures on its East Rail train components.
Asia Television, which operates the smaller of Hong Kong's two terrestrial TV stations, said it is in talks with several new potential investors in an attempt to bring in fresh financing and production know-how, as it accelerates investments locally and overseas ahead of a possible share listing next year. The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, which provides rail services in Hong Kong's New Territories, is relaunching tenders for its HK$6.6 billion Tuen Mun station property development project after receiving a reduced land premium offer from the government Wednesday. Victory City International Holdings, one of the world's largest manufacturers of knitted fabric, reported a 23.5 percent increase in net profit for the fiscal year ended March 31, the Hong Kong company's eighth consecutive year of earnings growth. Hong Kong's ailing horse-racing industry has received a boost with the Legislative Council passing the Betting Duty (Amendment) Bill despite strong objections it may not be the most effective means to combat illegal bookmaking activities in the territory. Controversial former security chief Regina Ip Lau Shuk-yee's decision to launch a think-tank instead of a new political party has won grudging praise from Liberal Party chief James Tien Pei-chun.
The China National Petroleum Cor. transferred 33 percent of its shares of PetroKazakhstan (PK) to a Kazakhstan state-owned natural gas company, Shanghai Securities News reported. Guangdong Province will raise its minimum salary levels in September, in attempt to make the province a more appealing destination for migrant workers.
The Ministry of Commerce has issued a circular to alert domestic companies to the pitfalls of exporting textile products to the United States and the European Union using fake certificates of origin. A new regulation, to be issued next year, aims to raise the access standard for exporters and phase out poor performers in response to surging car exports that have led to declining profits and falling prices. VC investment in China hit US$772 million during the first six months of this year, an increase of 128 per cent year-on-year, said Beijing-based professional VC consulting firm Zero2ipo.com Ltd yesterday. Two former executives of Skyworth Digital Holdings, one of China's largest television makers, were each sentenced on Thursday to six years in jail for conspiring to steal millions of dollars in company funds, officials said.
Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp, state-owned partner of General Motors and Volkswagen, on Wednesday announced it had sold its vehicle manufacturing assets to its publicly traded affiliate. Moody's Investors Service, a leading global credit rating and risk analysis firm, is changing its approach for assigning different ratings to debt raised by the same Chinese company or group to reflect lower potential expected loss for certain debt holders due to legal and structural subordination, a process otherwise known as "notching." A wholly-owned subsidiary of construction and engineering firm Chevalier International Holdings plans to take a majority stake in a 750 million yuan (HK$729.6 million) mixed-use property development in Anhui province. Ocean Grand Holdings, a Hong Kong- listed aluminum products maker, said it has lost contact with a subsidiary's financial controller and that potential accounting irregularities at the unit may lead to a loss of as much as 6 million yuan (HK$5.83 million). Digital China Holdings, the largest distributor of information technology products in the mainland, said income next year would not be hit by "fierce" price competition after announcing a 35 percent jump in full-year profit on higher computer sales. Imposing US trade sanctions on China for currency manipulation would be "a colossal policy blunder" and do little to gain jobs in the United States, a free- market research institute said. July 13, 2006
A motion to set up an independent harbor authority in Hong Kong is expected to face strong opposition in the Legislative Council today, with the pro- business Liberal Party calling it an "impediment to efficiency" in waterfront planning. Richard Li Tzar-kai's confirmation yesterday that he is providing the bulk of the financing for the purchase of most of his stake in PCCW by financier Francis Leung Pak-to underscores one simple fact: no other lender was likely to touch such a deal, according to bankers. The government prefers the Soko Islands, a favoured diving site south of Lantau, as the site for power generator CLP Holdings' planned liquefied natural gas terminal - setting the stage for a new environmental fight.
A Hong Kong-owned logistics centre in Huizhou , Guangdong, will have to wait to collect a multimillion yuan court-ordered payout, with confirmation yesterday that authorities plan to appeal against the decision.
Crude oil from Kazakhstan poured into a petroleum tank in Alataw pass. China posted a record high 235.36 billion U.S. dollars in the imports and exports of high-tech products over the first six months, up 30.6 percent from the same period last year. Incomes of employees in profitable monopoly sectors who earn up to 10 times the national average should be capped to reduce the widening wealth gap, researchers at a leading think-tank urged yesterday. A three-tier housing security system is now in place in China but there is still a lot of work to be done to temper public concern over soaring property prices, according to an expert with the Ministry of Construction. The EU, together with the United States, filed complaints on March 30 to the World Trade Organization (WTO) against China, accusing the country of violating its WTO commitment by imposing a discriminatory tariff regime on foreign car parts. China is building too many power plants and needs to make more progress in price reforms to discourage consumers from wasting energy, the Paris- based International Energy Agency says. Developers will have to obtain government approval before they pre-sell houses under construction under new rules aimed at cooling speculation in the red-hot property market. The People's Bank of China says it will allow money brokers into the mainland interbank market, a move that will make it easier for the bank to control interest rates, make it simpler to arrange deals between financial institutions and ultimately help pave the way to freer yuan trading. CNOOC's parent, China National Offshore Oil Corp, will seek Hong Kong stock exchange approval tomorrow for an up to US$400 million initial public offering of its chemical fertiliser business, China Blue Chemical, according to sources familiar with the situation. July 12, 2006
Shares in PCCW, Hong Kong's largest telecommunications operator, slumped 8.1 percent Tuesday, giving local banker Francis Leung Pak-to a HK$680 million paper loss after he agreed a day earlier to acquire a stake of almost 23 percent of the company from Richard Li Tzar-kai. The sale of a controlling stake in Hong Kong's dominant telecom firm gives chairman Richard Li Tzar-kai an exit from a declining business but could also see him locked out of the mainland, analysts said on Tuesday. Francis Leung Pak-to, who has charged in at the head of a group of local investors to buy a controlling stake in PCCW, will never be able to convince some people that he was not acting on behalf of Hong Kong's richest man, Li Ka-shing, whose favourite broker and banker he has long been. Hong Kong-based non-life insurer Ming An Insurance, which is planning an initial public offering next year, is bringing in two strategic investors in the meantime, including tycoon Li Ka- shing's Cheung Kong (Holdings). Cafe de Coral Holdings, Hong Kong's largest Chinese fast-food chain, celebrated the 20th anniversary of its public listing by declaring a generous dividend on the back of a 12 percent jump in annual profit and setting a target of double-digit growth for the next five years.
Police are looking for three suspects, including an alleged mastermind, linked to what police describe as an elaborate mortgage racket that netted HK$11 million in loans and nearly got away with another HK$6 million. Chaos reigned for 20 minutes in Macau Tuesday when 2,000 people, many middle-aged women, battled each other to get one of 500 application forms to join to a casino training program. The gambling industry in the territory is huge. Macau's gambling revenue nearly tripled to US$5.8 billion (HK$45.2 billion) last year from US$2 billion in 2000, according to the government, pulling nearly even with the world's most lucrative gambling center, the Las Vegas Strip, which last year took in US$6 billion, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. Hong Kong's fashion industry was well-placed to deal with future challenges, Permanent Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology Yvonne Choi Ying-pik said on Tuesday.
China had urged the United States not to pursue a "Cold War mindset" when it comes to more strategic controls on trade in high-technology products, state media said on Tuesday.
China's Chaoyue No. 3 fuel cell driven car from Shanghai received four gold medals during the Michelin Challenge Bibendum 2006 being held in Paris in June.
China's gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to rise by over 10 percent in the first half of 2006 and by over 9 percent for the whole year, surpassing the anticipated 9 percent growth. Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group agreed to study the feasibility of spending as much as US$6 billion on a China plant to turn coal into fuels and chemicals. A new EU directive is expected to affect US$56 billion worth of annual exports from more than 5,000 Chinese home appliance companies, small and medium-sized companies are expected to feel the directive's effects first. Bank lending in China fell 22 per cent last month, suggesting official efforts to cool off the sizzling economy were taking effect, state media reported on Tuesday.
Guangdong's economy will overtake Taiwan's by 2010, making up the US$8 billion economic gap with its island neighbor by expanding at US$2 billion more than Taiwan on average every year, governor Huang Huahua says. July 11, 2006
Shares of Li & Fung, the world's largest consumer goods exporter, rose nearly 7 percent Monday, the first day of trading following the Hong Kong-based company's announcement about its latest acquisition.
Cannes best actor winner Tony Leung Chiu-wai says admitted he has met with director Ang Lee and wants to work with him, but declined to confirm reports that he may take part in Lee's upcoming spy thriller Lust, Caution.
Chinese companies engaged in home-grown third-generation mobile communication technology TD-SCDMA are calling on the government to issue operation license as test of the technology is near complete. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce is to revise the management rules on textile export quotas in a fresh effort to prevent speculation in the quotas and rectify the textile export market. Fresh figures on new loans and money supply in China show signs of a slight slowdown, a report said Monday, although strong overall growth has boosted expectations of a further tightening in credit. The high-stakes battle for a stake in struggling Guangdong Development Bank may hinge on who takes responsibility for 50 billion yuan (HK$48.72 billion) in bad assets, industry sources said. China's global trade surplus rose to a new record high of US$14.5 billion (HK$113 billion) last month, the Commerce Ministry reported on Monday. Formosa Plastics group, one of Taiwan’s leading petrochemical manufacturers, was seeking approval from mainland authorities for a massive investment in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, the Commercial Times reported on Monday. July 10, 2006
Hanny Holdings, a Hong Kong-listed investment firm, is to issue US$150 million (HK$1.17 billion) worth of five- year convertible exchangeable notes to fund its subsidiary, China Enterprises, as it expands in the China property market.
An international expert and adviser to the United Nations has warned against taking a "big bang approach" in implementing a competition law in Hong Kong as this could add costs on businesses which might suddenly find themselves on the wrong side of the law. Customs officers seized HK$2 million worth of counterfeit goods and arrested 11 people in raids on Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok in a bid to stop hawkers from selling fakes to tourists. The government on Friday welcomed Moody’s Investors Service’s decision to upgrade Hong Kong’s domestic currency government bond rating outlook from “stable” to “positive”. The government on Friday said it would introduce new legislation which will update its control list for strategic commodities - bringing it into line with other countries.
China has become the fourth largest global economy with a total GDP of US$ 2,229 billion, which surpasses Italy and France and slightly exceeds Britain, according to the 2005 Global GDP Situation, issued by the World Bank on Tuesday. China Southern Airlines announced on Friday that it had signed a contract to buy 50 Airbus A320 aircraft with a catalogue price of US$3.3 billion (HK$25.7 billion). The planes would be delivered in 2009-2010, the airline said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange where it is listed. China Southern said it had been able to secure a lower price than the catalogue value of US$3.3 billion but did not provide further details. The airline, which maintains China's largest fleet of commercial planes, said the purchase would be entirely financed by commercial bank loans. Ford Motor’s vehicle sales in China doubled in January to June compared with first-half of last year, rising 102 per cent to 74,395 units, the company’s China unit said on Friday. China's State Reserve Bureau, which last year staged high-profile copper auctions, may be quietly trying to unload some of its older stocks to cut its overall inventory. July 7 - 9, 2006
The Hong Kong stock market had a surprise jump Thursday due to buying by mainland funds as the North Korea missile crisis and concern over a US interest rate increase caused the sell-off in regional markets to continue. Cathay Pacific Airways is paying a higher price-to-book value in its 100 percent takeover of Dragon Airlines when compared with the market values of other regional airlines, says ING Bank, the adviser to Cathay's independent board committee and shareholders in the deal. The government will introduce a sweeping anti-spam bill in the Legislative Council Wednesday in an attempt to clamp down on the flood of unsolicited messages plaguing Hong Kong's fax machines, mobile phones and e-mail inboxes.
Acknowledging it was nearly impossible to boost the birth rate as a solution to an aging population problem, a government think-tank has suggested a more pragmatic approach - to encourage mainland-born offspring of Hong Kong residents to move back to the territory at an early age. The number of Hong Kong residents living across the border has more than doubled in the space of four years to 91,000, according to a survey by the Planning Department. Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee's sabbatical at Stanford University afforded her a period of "open-minded intellectual reflection" which led her to conclude Hong Kong needed the early introduction of universal suffrage, says the mentor for her master's thesis. The poultry trade warned live chickens would cost consumers around $30 a catty - nearly twice as much as normal - when sales resume today after a three-week ban on imports amid a bird flu scare in Shenzhen. An institutional investor has sold 57.84 million shares of China Power International, one of the mainland's five largest power companies, for up to HK$157.6 million, capitalizing on the surge in the stock price after the recent electricity tariff increases in China. The Hong Kong Airport Authority, operator of the city's international airport at Chek Lap Kok, is proposing to pay HK$1.3 billion in dividends to its sole shareholder - the government - after annual net profit jumped 33 percent from a year ago. The ongoing battle over the legality of the administration's spying operations went to the Court of Final Appeal Wednesday, with government lawyers urging the territory's highest court to "suspend" its verdict that the government had been illegally snooping on its citizens for years. Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun would invest 4 billion yuan (HK$3.8 billion) to transform Beijing's landmark Friendship Store into a 58-storey sky-scraper, state media said on Thursday.
The government said on Thursday Raymond Ch’ien Kuo Fung had been re-appointed chairman of the MTR Corporation. Hong Kong was committed to co-operating with Guangdong authorities to reduce air pollution levels, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said on Thursday. Hong Kong’s next by-census would be conducted from next Saturday to August 1, the government announced on Thursday. Start-up budget airline Oasis is to offer cut-price introductory fares between London's Gatwick Airport and Hong Kong for just £75 (HK$1,070) plus taxes, the company said on Thursday.
The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), which supervises the 166 enterprises on behalf of the central government, issued a regulation yesterday to regulate their investment activities. National advisors yesterday agreed to put reforming and standardizing China's income distribution system at the top of their priorities, reforming the system is very important to China as the country's economic reforms are at critical juncture. In the last trading week of June, the prices of all types of steel products dropped between 100 to 200 yuan (US$12-24) a metric ton over the previous week in Shanghai. A former Communist Party official in Guangdong has been sentenced to 14 years in jail for accepting 3.85 million yuan (HK$3.74 million) in bribes and for hoarding an even larger sum in wealth that could not be accounted for, Xinhua News Agency said. China Southern Airlines, the nation's biggest airline, Air China and other carriers in the world's most populous nation flew 18 percent more passengers in the first half than a year earlier, as economic expansion spurred travel demand.
Supervision of internet blogs will be tightened, the State Council has announced, while one of the mainland's most popular liberal chat-room forums has been told to tone down comments on sensitive topics in further signs of increased control of the internet. Yingli Solar, a mainland solar power equipment maker, plans to raise about US$400 million from an initial public offering on the Nasdaq stock market by the end of this year or early next, market sources said. Greentown China Holdings, a mainland property developer, received several times more retail orders than available shares for its initial public offering, helped by improved sentiment after its peer Shimao Property Holdings' better than expected trading debut on Wednesday. Ivanhoe Cambridge, one of Canada's biggest property developers, and the CP Group of Thailand, one of the biggest foreign investors in China, yesterday announced a joint venture to invest in, manage and advise on shopping centres in China. China and India restarted border trade Thursday through Tibet's Nathu La Pass, a historic trading route closed for 44 years.
China's first corporate annuity plan registered with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MLSS) was put into practice on Wednesday with the Pacific Pension Insurance Company, according to sources with the ministry. People's Bank of China will provide special bank cards to migrant workers in 12 provinces, autonomous regions and cities, Su Ning, vice governor of the central bank, announced on Wednesday.
Mainland businesses saw their prospects improve in the second quarter of the year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, further evidence that the economy is continuing to grow rapidly despite government efforts to cool it down. July 6, 2006
Datang International Power Generation, the second-largest Hong Kong- listed mainland electricity producer, is teaming up with Datong Coal Mine to build two power plants in Shanxi province, with a total investment of about 5.42 billion yuan (HK$5.26 billion). Hong Kong-listed Lenovo Group, the world's third-largest maker of personal computers, has established the mainland's first corporate pension fund under a welfare ministry program for its employees in China.
Hong Kong officials said on Wednesday processing of applications for importing poultry and ostrich meat from South Africa would be suspended with immediate effect. Hong Kong is appealing to China's top students - Li Xuefei could have easily won a place at Zhejiang University, one of the mainland's elite tertiary institutions, after sitting the 2003 college entrance exam, but he has opted to take a far more expensive route by studying in Hong Kong.
China's central government has budgeted more than 50 billion yuan (6.25 billion U.S.) to finance rural construction and development this year. The Chinese central government has invested more than 200 billion yuan (over 25 billion U.S. dollars) to improve the environment in its western region in the last five years, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). President Hu Jintao called on China and Japan to strive to overcome the barriers plaguing their relations during a meeting with leader of Japan's main opposition party.
China's foreign exchange reserve holdings, already the biggest in the world, rose more than 5 percent in two months to reach US$925 billion (HK$7.22 trillion) at the end of May, state press reported Wednesday. Negotiations for two young pandas have reopened with Beijing after the State Council turned down a similar request 10 months ago, Ocean Park chairman Allan Zeman has revealed.
China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the unlisted parent of the mainland's largest integrated oil company, PetroChina, agreed to buy as much as US$3 billion worth of shares in the planned initial public offering of Russian oil firm Rosneft, but only if Rosneft offered something in return, sources said. July 4 - 5, 2006
World soccer's governing body FIFA has denied having a contingency plan to move the 2010 Soccer World Cup to Australia if South Africa is unable to host the event.
Hong Kong and Shanghai listed Anhui Expressway said Monday it will spend about 1.8 billion yuan (HK$1.75 billion) to widen part of the Hening Expressway to satisfy growing traffic volume amid the rapid growth and urbanization of Hefei, the capital city of Anhui province. Cathay Pacific Airways will get to relaunch its service to Shanghai as well as increase flights to Beijing under the new Air Services Arrangement signed between the Hong Kong and mainland governments, aimed at substantially liberalizing the aviation market between China and the SAR. Six banks have been licensed under the mainland's new qualified domestic institutional investor program, with more banks to follow, China Banking Regulatory Commission chairman Liu Mingkang said Monday. Controversial former secretary for security Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee has called for universal suffrage in 2012 and an amendment of the Basic Law in her academic dissertation on Hong Kong's Democratic Development: Past, Present and Future.
Octopus cardholders may soon be able to use their cards like Electronic Payment Services, or EPS, for payment in bars, boutiques or even for delivery services, the company head said. Hong Kong's retail sales rose to $18.6 billion in May - up 5.3 per cent compared with the same period last year, figures released on Monday showed. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) have played a vital role in Hong Kong's economic success, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Frederick Ma Si-hang said on Monday.
Air Macau hopes last month’s bankruptcy of Brazilian carrier Varig will let it hire the pilots needed to spearhead an expansion of regional services, according to chief executive David Fei Hong-jun.
The Bank of China (BOC), which will witness its share circulated in China's A-share stock market this week, is to be included in major stock indexes in the country after two weeks, the Xinhua-run Shanghai Securities News reported on Monday. China's further reductions of import taxes on some cars and auto parts as of July 1, may lead to a new wave of auto price cuts in the second half of this year, China Securities Journal reported Monday. During the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010), the Renminbi (RMB), China's currency, is expected to appreciate by two to eight percent annually, the Shanghai Securities News quoted a report from the People's University of China as saying on Monday. China Mobile Communications' proposed purchase of a Luxembourg-based telecommunications investment company, Millicom International Cellular, has been called off, Millicom announced Monday. About four years since mainland players launched their first commercial supercomputers, China has narrowed the gap with Japan to become Asia's fastest-growing market for these high-performance computing systems. July 3, 2006
State leader Jia Qinglin's visit to Hong Kong has disappointed city bankers as he failed to deliver new and concrete yuan-related businesses for local banks. Shares of Neo-China Group, a Hong Kong-listed property firm operating in the mainland, surged nearly 40 percent Thursday after the company announced the acquisition of a residential and commercial project in Tianjin from its controlling shareholder for HK$845.3 million.
For the first time in Hong Kong's history, members of the People's Liberation Army will march through the city for the July 1 celebrations. The PLA display of power is part of an alternative demonstration marking the ninth year of the handover, and will be staged by 19 pro-Beijing groups, said Cheng Yiu-tong, president of the pro- Beijing Federation of Trade Unions and convenor of the organizing committee. A surgeon who helped the ICAC look into allegations of kickbacks paid by specialists to general practitioners for referrals has asked a court to overturn a Medical Council decision not to investigate five doctors.
Hong Kong's two power companies yesterday argued that a new scheme of control regulating their investment and profits should last longer than 10 years to ensure their operations remained commercially viable.
China on Friday raised retail prices of electricity by an average of 0.025 yuan (0.31 of a US cent) per kilowatt-hour (kwh) for the first time since May 2005.
Legend Capital, the investment arm under Lenovo Group owner Legend Holdings, is funding the expansion of Shanghai-based Virtuos, one of the world's largest outsourcing services providers for the games software industry. Kingsoft’s English-Chinese dictionary program is used on most of China’s 60 million personal computers. That’s the good news. The bad news: Kingsoft does not make any money from it, because 90 per cent of those copies are pirated. June 30 - July 2, 2006
Dickson Concepts, a Hong Kong-listed upscale retailer, posted a 2.6 percent growth in net profit to HK$208.4 million for its fiscal year ended March 31, slightly lower than forecasts. Hong Kong-listed China National Building Material announced Wednesday it will pay 961.1 million yuan (HK$932.27 million) to fully acquire Xuzhou Conch Cement, in a move designed to boost its production capacity in Jiangsu province. Rupert Murdoch has reportedly joined Australian bank Macquarie's bid for PCCW's telecommunications and media businesses as the bidding for the Hong Kong phone company's assets added its highest-profile player to date on Thursday. Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen on Thursday said the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (Cepa) had helped Hong Kong's economy to recover. State leader Jia Qinglin ended his three-day tour of Hong Kong on Thursday, aimed at boosting the central government’s image in the SAR, by announcing that mainland authorities would expand the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement free trade deal. China's State Council might further expand its yuan business in Hong Kong, Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference chairman Jia Qinglin said on Thursday.
Qinghai-Tibet railway is ready for operation on July 1, said a senior official with the Ministry of Railways at a news conference Thursday in Beijing. Both the Chinese premier and the Australian prime minister have expressed their hopes of accelerating talks on a free-trade agreement yesterday in the southern city. Experts estimate that the maximum power load in Beijing will reach about 12.2 million kilowatts this summer, resulting in a 500,000 kw power shortage. Looking at 144 cities around the world, including five on the Chinese mainland as well as Hong Kong and Taipei, the latest cost-of-living survey threw surprises.
With the signing of a supplementary agreement of the mainland/Macao Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), the Chinese mainland will further open its services and trade sectors to Macao. The deputy commander of China's navy has been sacked for abuse of power, corruption and "economic crimes" after his mistress reported his activities to authorities, state press said on Thursday. China will restrict the number of domestic vehicle companies allowed to sell cars overseas in a sector restructuring that aimed to ramp up industry competitiveness, state press reported on Thursday.
*News information are obtained via various sources deemed reliable, but not guaranteed
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Holidays Greeting from President Obama &
Johnson Choi
Hong Kong:
Li Ka-shing, Asia's wealthiest man,
is donating HK$2.4 billion worth of his shares in Cheung Kong Life Sciences
International (8222) to the Li Ka Shing Foundation, which the 78-year- old
philanthropist established purely for charitable purposes. CK Life Sciences
closed Wednesday at 85 HK cents per share - up 5 HK cents, or 6.25 percent. In
May last year, Li transferred the entire C$1.2 billion (HK$8.42 billion)
proceeds from selling his 17,008,928 common shares in Canadian bank CIBC. The
foundation previously made a HK$1 billion donation to Hong Kong University,
which then named its medicine school after Li. Li, who is on a trip to Rome, met
Italy's prime minister Romano Prodi and communications minister Paolo Gentiloni
Wednesday to discuss his investment in 3 Italia, the telecommunications arm of
Hutchison Whampoa (0013) in the country. Li said last week in a press conference
to announce the interim results of Cheung Kong (Holdings) (0001) and Hutchison
Whampoa - both of which he chairs - that he would not follow in the footsteps of
Warren Buffett, the world's second- richest man, who has pledged to donate the
bulk of his assets to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Instead, Li has
pledged to donate at least one third of his assets to his foundation. A
spokesperson said Li's move to donate his shares was not inspired by either
Gates or Buffett. Li established his foundation in 1980, long before Gates had
even amassed enough assets to set up a foundation that could be widely
recognized. Li's spokesperson ruled out the possibility that the tycoon would
donate his stakes in Cheung Kong, Hutchison Whampoa or Canada's Husky Energy as
these were, respectively, the ultimate holding company, a multinational
conglomerate and a core business. The spokesperson declined to disclose the
total asset value of Li's foundation.
China:
U.S. Trade Representative Susan
Schwab said Tuesday in Beijing that the US benefited greatly from China's rapid
economic progress. The United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab wrapped
up her first visit to Beijing on Tuesday with China emerging as the best
possible mediator the U.S. could find to help resume the stalled Doha Round of
trade talks.
An elderly woman sits close to her destroyed home in the flood stricken town of
Guangyuan on Wednesday in China's Sichuan province. Communities in southern
China are straining to resettle more than 15 million people left homeless by a
devastating flood season in the past few months, the official Xinhua News Agency
reported.
Nissan forecasts mainland sales of
its locally built and imported cars will surge 50 per cent to more than 300,000
units next year.
Hong Kong's world-famous landmark,
the 49-year-old Star Ferry pier in Central, moved one step closer to demolition
Tuesday when the government announced completion of external works on the
replacement terminal. Unveiling the new terminal, chief engineer of the Civil
Engineering and Development Department Fung Kit- wing said the Star Ferry
Company would start fitting out the terminal immediately, with work taking about
two months. The terminal will open in November, and the old landmark will be
demolished three months later.
But while the exterior of the
terminal - modeled on the 1912 version of the terminal - might fool a local or
two, old-timers will be able to tell the difference upon hearing the sound of
the imitation bells ringing from the electronically operated clock tower. The
bells, which sound every quarter of an hour, lack the rich and resonant quality
of the their authentic counterparts. "The bells may sound slightly different
but, overall, they're quite similar," Fung said.
Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen (left) chats with film director Johnnie
To Kei-fung at a reception at the Cultural centre yesterday to celebrate the
nomination and world premiere of his film Fangzhu (Exiled) at the 63rd
Venice Film Festival.
Twins singer Gillian Chung (centre)
shows the strain as she leaves TVB City in Tseung Kwan O, last night with fellow
Twin Charlene Choi Cheuk-yin (right) after her first high-profile Hong Kong
appearance since Easy Finder magazine ran photos secretly taken of her changing
costume in Malaysia. The singer appeared on television after returning to the
city and making a report to the police, who are liaising through Interpol with
counterparts in Malaysia. Canto-pop idol Gillian Chung Yan-tung filed a police
complaint yesterday, seeking an investigation into Easy Finder magazine for
publishing pictures of her changing backstage during a concert in Malaysia.
With few resources to call on, dog-lover Nikki Green has managed to find homes
for about 400 strays and puppies in three years. But she feels her crusade to
save unwanted and unloved animals will be futile unless the government takes
concrete steps to stop Hong Kong's growing dog problem.
Young Tibetan Buddhist monks debate
scriptures at Songzanlin Temple in Shangri La county, Yunnan province, near the
border with Tibet. The county is a popular tourist destination with visitors
wishing to see first hand the mythical land of Shangri-La, made famous by James
Hilton in his 1933 book Lost Horizon.
Hundreds of viewers were attracted by a special exhibition of Barbie dolls at
Langham Place in Mongkok yesterday. A total of 107 special-issue Barbies, valued
at more than HK$1 million, are on display until September 5. Barbie, who
celebrated her 47th birthday this year, is the world's best-selling doll.
Dick Lee (centre), with his deputy Tang King-shing (left) and director of
operations Peter Yam Tat-wing, speaks after meeting lawmakers in an hour-long
meeting yesterday. Police chief Dick Lee Ming-kwai pledged yesterday to look
personally at all cases of intimidation and vandalism directed at public figures
in the wake of the brutal attack on Democratic Party lawmaker Albert Ho Chun-yan.
Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho Hung-sun, asked to comment last night on the
attack on Albert Ho Chun-yan, said he did not want to see such violent acts
taking place.
Scaffolding is wheeled past the
famed giant portrait of Mao Zedong as construction workers prepare to spruce up
the 600-year-old Tiananmen Gate in Beijing for National Day on October 1.
About 200 people marched from Wan Chai to Central to protest against the
proposed goods and services tax yesterday. The protest was organised by the
Democratic Party. Party legislator Sin Chung-kai, who joined the march, said
Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen should shorten the nine-month public
consultation period.
Two
men walk past the headquarter of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) in Beijing,
Aug. 18, 2006. The People's Bank of China (PBOC)announced on Friday that it will
raise the one-year benchmark interest rates by 27 basis points from August 19.
The composite index of Shanghai Stock Exchange slumped 26.9 points, or 1.68
percent, to open at 1,565.457 points on Monday morning.
Indonesian dancers perform at a welcoming
party for the "Celebrating the Joy of Nature" festival yesterday at a Causeway
Bay hotel. They are one of 16 groups of dancers from 12 countries in the
festival, held at the Asia World Expo tonight and tomorrow. The event was
organised by the International Nature Loving Association, a charity formed to
change "youthful coldness and pessimistic behaviour through exposure of original
charm and virtues of youthful dancers".
The People's Bank of
China (PBOC) announced on Friday that it will raise the one-year benchmark
interest rate by 0.27 percent from August 19. Analysts welcomed the rise in
interest rates announced by the People's Bank of China yesterday, but they said
the rise was too small to discourage the runaway pace of investment in the
country and predicted further tightening measures to come.
Briton John Evans, who claims to have the world's strongest neck, balances two
girls on bicycles on his head - weighing a total of 144kg - at the APM mall in
Kwun Tong. The holder of 30 Guinness world records, who has balanced a car on
his head and performed throughout the world, Evans will be performing similar
stunts at shopping malls throughout the city until tomorrow.
Faced with a growing public outcry over
claims of illegally converting a leased government warehouse into a private
residence, Daniel Heung Cheuk-kei, cousin of Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen,
announced his resignation from two official posts with immediate effect. "As
chairman of the Committee on the Promotion of Civic Education, I feel the way I
have been portrayed may have confused and disappointed the public," Heung said
in a press release Tuesday.
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen
attends a symposium yesterday on his celebrated ancestor Zeng Zi, a philosopher
and disciple of Confucius. National People's Congress Standing Committee member
Tsang Hin-chi, another member of the philosopher's clan, also attended the third
International Symposium on the Zengzi School of Thought at the Island
Shangri-La.
Gracie Foo, the new deputy broadcasting
director of RTHK, addresses the media on her first day in office. She would not
be drawn on speculation that her posting was part of a government attempt to
rein in the public broadcaster's editorial autonomy.
Chinese electronics companies are
responding to increased demand by mainland manufacturers and financial services
firms for advanced, internet-based video-conferencing systems to cut travel and
boost productivity amid increasingly stringent air transport restrictions and
growing foreign competition.
The hotly contested `groundscraper'
proposal in the government's blueprint for the Central waterfront was submitted
by Hongkong Land, Central's largest landlord, in a move that effectively
safeguarded harborviews for its adjacent developments, The Standard has learned.
The building - nicknamed "IFC2 lying on its side" by environmentalists - was
proposed by Hongkong Land in 1998 as an "objection" to government plans which
envisioned a 40-story block-shaped skyscraper at the site, according to a
source. 
The level of the Yangtze River in
Chongqing has dropped to its lowest level in more than 100 years as the region
swelters. A prolonged heatwave and a lack of rainfall are drying up the
southwestern province of Sichuan , leaving at least 10 million people in the
region without easy access to clean drinking water.
Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas and
Hong Kong's eating king Johnny Wu Hung-shing line their stomachs for the first
Whampoa Asia Eating Championship in Hong Kong tomorrow, where 36 champion
chompers will munch their way through as many dumplings as they can in 12
minutes. The six top competitors will vie for a HK$20,000 prize in Sunday's
final, when they will wolf down jumbo-sized lotus longevity buns.
ICBC (Asia) chairman Jiang Jianqing (left) and chief executive Zhu Qi say the
bank's interest margin will keep growing in the second half. 
Legco president Rita Fan asserts her authority as tempers flare in the Legco
chamber. The controversial covert surveillance bill was passed early this
morning shortly after the Democrats and their allies staged a dramatic walkout
from the Legco chamber following the voting down of a sunset clause to repeal
the law after two years.
A cat lover hugs her pet at the Hong Kong Cat Expo at the Hong Kong Convention
and Exhibition Centre. The two-day expo, which ends today and is organised by
the Cat Lovers Society, features more than 400 cats of more than 20 species
which are competing in four categories.
Investment funds may sell their
Giordano stakes due to expected disappointing interim earnings. Japan's Fast
Retailing, which operates the Uniqlo clothing chain, aims to buy casual-wear
retailer Giordano International to gain immediate entry into Hong Kong and
expand on the mainland, according to market sources and analysts.
Fruit farmer Chui Tai-wai inspects a new variety of Japanese rock melon
introduced by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department as part of
its efforts to help local farmers grow organic foods. There are currently five
farmers in Hong Kong experimenting with the new variety of greenhouse melon,
expected on the market next month. The melons grow best in temperatures between
25-30 degrees Celsius and take 70 to 85 days to reach their full size. 
A Causeway Bay retail shop may have set a record for Hong Kong retail rent after
being leased for HK$8,000 per square foot per month on lettable floor area.
Form Five students [from left] Leo Lam Kwan-leuk, Andy Chan Wing-kit, Cookie Lai
Sin-yan and Karmen Chen Ka-man try an alternative way to unwind while they are
waiting for their Hong Kong Certificate of Examinations results, due next
Wednesday. A Kwun Tong shopping mall is offering all Form Five students 10
minutes worth of free aroma-mixed oxygen at the mall's aroma bar as a way to
beat the stress. More sporty youngsters can also take part in sessions of
kick-boxing to help them pound away the stress.
Trainee nurses attend a course at a
hospital in Xian, Shaanxi province. The Health Ministry has warned that a
chronic shortage of nurses is threatening patient safety, despite the number on
the mainland rising by about 50,000 last year to nearly 1.35 million.
Word of COSL's potential acquisition comes almost one year after CNOOC withdrew
its US$18.5 billion bid for US oil firm Unocal.
Donald Tsang speaks at the
Shajiao power station in Humen, watched by environment chief Sarah Liao Sau-tung
and constitutional affairs chief Stephen Lam.
Shui On chief Vincent Lo says the firm may bring more assets than originally
planned to market to boost the launch's appeal.
Hong Kong is moving closer towards
integrating its economy with China – a process which is helping to lay the
foundation for the city’s long-term future. Soon, Hong Kong companies and
foreign firms based in Hong Kong will be able to settle bills for imports from
China in the mainland’s currency the renminbi (RMB) or yuan. In addition,
Chinese financial institutions will be allowed to issue bonds in Hong Kong
denominated in yuan. The moves were announced as Hong Kong celebrated the ninth
anniversary of its handover to China. “This is a major policy initiated by the
Central Government in support of the consolidation and development of Hong
Kong's status as an international financial centre,” said Hong Kong’s Chief
Executive Donald Tsang. The State Council in Beijing is putting the finishing
touches to the legal framework for the initiatives before they get underway.
Hong Kong provides an ideal bridge between the West and China for intellectual
property protection, according to Simon Speeks, a partner in the Hong Kong
office of UK’s leading trademark and patent attorney firm Marks & Clerk. “Hong
Kong has Western experience, but it also has Chinese knowledge. Many overseas
firms don’t understand how Chinese patent law operates. Here in Hong Kong we
have someone who understands their point of view, and also understands Chinese
law and culture,” said Mr Speeks. Marks & Clerk helps foreign and local
companies acquire, secure and register IP rights and manage their IP portfolios,
and counts leading brands such as MGM, McDonalds and Southern Comfort among its
clients. The company plans to open a Shanghai office this year. Because Hong
Kong and China have separate legal jurisdictions, companies have to register IP
rights in both Hong Kong and China. “If companies are setting up in China, it’s
very important to look at protecting their ideas, otherwise the likelihood is
that the possibility of an infringement occurring is much higher in China, or
South East Asia generally, than elsewhere. Without some form of IP registration
(e.g. Patent, Design or Trademark) it is almost impossible to take effective
action against infringers.
Two international ratings agencies have
upgraded Hong Kong’s long-term credit rating, reflecting the city’s sound
economic fundamentals and improved fiscal position. Standard & Poor’s Rating
Services raised the city’s long-term credit rating to AA from AA-, the highest
rating it has ever assigned the city. This upgrade came hot on the heels of
another credit lift from Fitch Ratings which upgraded its long-term foreign
currency outlook on the city to “positive” from “stable”. “The upgrades confirm
that Hong Kong’s improved fiscal position and sound fundamentals deserve a much
higher rating,” said Financial Secretary Henry Tang. “It is also recognition of
the continued strength of China’s economic performance and the overall
strengthening of its creditworthiness. Hong Kong will continue to capitalise on
the opportunities arising from China’s rapid growth.”
A
shopper at the Sincere department store chain's Sheung Wan branch examines the 5
per cent discount - the same level as the GST proposed by the government - on
all goods as a measure to oppose the tax. The offer ends today.
Hundreds of locals all have the same
idea on Sunday, descending on a pool in Nanjing, in Jiangsu province, for
respite from the 36.8 degree Celsius heat.
Anti-smog activists lead a group of children to Government House to urge Chief
Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen to join their three-minute lights-out campaign.
In their petition letter, Lights Out Hong Kong asked Mr Tsang to delay or cancel
the light-show tourist attraction on both sides of Victoria Harbor on August 8.
Mr Tsang will visit Guangzhou tomorrow to discuss anti-pollution measures with
his mainland counterparts.
Companies are using a range of security features that help them spot fake goods.
For the executives of Golden Glass, it was like going the wrong way on a moving
walkway. The company's share of the market for fire-rated glass had slipped to
50 per cent from 80 per cent over five years, despite growing acclaim for its
products. Golden Glass, which has Chinese, Hong Kong and German investors, is
looking at a number of anti-fraud technologies, including radio frequency
identification, or RFID, in which a computer chip is applied to the product.
Using a scanner, the purchaser can quickly know whether the product is genuine.
President Hu Jintao meets workers who took
part in the reconstruction of Tangshan after the 1976 quake. Mr Hu's visit to
the city last Friday was not reported until yesterday.
Police and the community are concerned about the growing number of youngsters
flocking to Mongkok nightclubs, where drugs are easily obtainable. Police say
teenagers are also vulnerable to abuse by older men. The number of teenagers
arrested for using drugs has increased by more than 34 per cent in the past
year, Police Commissioner Dick Lee Ming-kwai said yesterday.
Sir
Run Run Shaw, 99, the founder of Shaw Brothers film and entertainment business,
was taken ill Wednesday and hospitalized with mild pneumonia. Shaw's wife Mona
Fong said he is "recovering." She is deputy chairman and acting managing
director of TVB. Shaw is executive chairman of TVB and holds a 32.49 percent
interest in the station through Shaw Brothers and Shaw Foundation. Shaw's stake
in TVB is estimated to be HK$6.4 billion. By acquiring Shaw's stake, any
potential buyer could gain control of the Shaw Brothers entertainment empire by
paying HK$3.8 billion. Shaw Brothers has a market capitalization of more than
HK$5.2 billion, while the combined market cap of the company and TVB is HK$25.5
billion. Shaw Holdings owns 74.58 percent of Shaw Brothers. Sources said Friday
potential buyers include a local tycoon and parties from the mainland and that
discussions to acquire Shaw Brothers had been continuing for about two months.
While potential suitors emerged, several of them contacted Friday denied making
any overtures. Shaw Brothers also denied any agreement had been made, while
acknowledging that potential interested parties had approached the company at
various times. The company, however, confirmed that discussions we are under way
regarding a possible purchase of shares by a third party. Shares of Shaw
Brothers and TVB rose significantly, with Shaw Brothers reaching a 52-week high
to close at HK$13.28 Friday. The share was up 6.2 percent from Wednesday's
close. TVB closed at HK$46.4 Friday, having climbed about 1.8 percent since
Wednesday's close. Among those said to be interested in the company is PCCW
chairman Richard Li Tzar-kai. But when contacted Friday, he denied he had
interest. "I have no intention to buy either Shaw Brothers or TVB. It's
absolutely not true," Li said. Other potential suitors include News Corp and Sun
Hung Kai Properties, as well as private equity funds. Sun Hung Kai Properties
spokeswoman May Lau denied that the company was interested. Chinese Estates
Holdings chairman Joseph Lau also dismissed suggestions he was a potential
buyer. News Corp declined to comment. ITC Group chairman Chan Kwok- keung said:
"I wish to, but I do not have enough money." TVB is the most valuable asset of
Shaw Brothers. CLSA said in a research note Thursday TVB is currently trading at
15.9 times forecast earnings for 2007, versus a historical average price to
earnings of 21 times. The company recorded HK$1.2 billion net profit and HK$4.1
billion revenue. Price to earning ratio was 16.9 times and earnings per share
HK$2.694.
Everything was blue except the
sky yesterday when environment secretary Sarah Liao Sau-tung and Chief Executive
Donald Tsang Yam-kuen launched their latest clean-air initiative. On a day when
the air pollution index registered "high" or "very high", Mr Tsang and Dr Liao
unleashed a shower of blue confetti, a symbol of Action Blue Sky's goal to clean
up Hong Kong's air. "Every small step can help," Mr Tsang said at the ceremony
in West Kowloon.
Former IT technician Hades Kong Pui-man and two friends sell jewellery made on
the mainland on eBay. They sell about 30 to 50 pieces of jewellery to the US and
Britain for a monthly profit of $50,000.
The
sheer size of ICBC's initial public offering could make it easier for the bank
to set identical prices for Hong Kong and the mainland.
Correctional Services officers raise their
hats to Commissioner for Correctional Services Kelvin Pang Sung-yuen at his
farewell parade yesterday. Mr Pang (insert) was retiring after 37 years of
service. Mr Pang thanked his colleagues for their support over the years in
improving rehabilitation services and urged them to continue the good work.
Air China wants to become the second Hong Kong-listed mainland company after
Bank of China to sell shares in the recently reopened mainland market for
initial public offerings. Air China, the mainland's most profitable airline, may
sell 2.7 billion A shares for about eight billion yuan as soon as early next
month if the sale is approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission's
Public Offering Review Committee at a meeting slated for next Wednesday.
Students march at the People's Liberation Army's San Wai barracks in Fanling
yesterday, in a ceremony at the start of an 11-day summer camp at the garrison.
A total of 150 students from 84 secondary schools will undergo a gruelling
training schedule including military drills, discipline, the use of weapons and
defence theory. It is the second such camp held by the PLA.
If only real protests saw so many
smiles between police and demonstrators. A drill in Changchun, northeast Jilin
province, yesterday tested the officers' readiness to deal with riots and
illegal protests. More than 300 people were involved in the exercise, including
police, firefighters and riot police.
Beijing has stipulated that at least
half of its crude oil imports must be carried on Chinese ships.
Former Hong Kong No2 Anson
Chan Fang On-sang has said she will form and lead a core group of eight to 10
people to formulate concrete proposals and a long-term strategy for universal
suffrage, but she remains non- committal over her intention to run in the chief
executive election next March.
Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying- yen's
101-page GST scheme proposal, unveiled Tuesday, cajoled the poorest consumers in
the territory with a mind- boggling assortment of enticements, all pointing to
relief: rebates, refunds, exemptions, offsets, subsidies, postponements. The
government will likely give back HK$20 billion generated from a goods and
services tax through a combination of reducing salaries and profits tax, a
government source said, despite the consultation paper suggesting either one or
the other. Under a 5 percent GST regime, when a tailor sells a HK$1,500 suit,
the buyer will pay HK$1,575. The financial services industry is likely to emerge
as the biggest winner if a GST is implemented in the territory, after the
government proposed waiving the new levy on most financial products, while at
the same time allowing financial service providers to claim full refunds on any
GST paid to their suppliers. While anti-GST protesters chanted slogans outside
the Legislative Council, inside Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen parried
sharp criticisms and questions with calls for an "objective, calm and rational
debate" - although he himself has pointed out that a GST has been debated on and
off for 20 years. 
Police try to hold back floodwaters
after a canal in Tianbao county, Zhangzhou, Fujian, broke its banks yesterday
(above). Tropical Storm Bilis has killed at least 190 people since hitting
mainland provinces Fujian, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Zhejiang and Jiangxi at
the weekend, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said. It said 25.4 million people
were affected. Of them, 155 were unaccounted for and 2.46 million had been
evacuated.
Daqin Railway Co, which runs China's biggest coal transport line, aims to raise
up to 15 billion yuan from an initial public offering in the domestic market,
making it the second-largest new A-share listing after the Bank of China.
Anson Chan attends the Asian Youth
Orchestra opening ceremony yesterday. The former chief secretary said Hong Kong
was getting a late start on universal suffrage.
A group of people chat in front of an
advertisement promoting a bank's financial planning services in Beijing on
Tuesday. Driven by surging exports and a building boom, China's economy grew a
stunning 11.3 percent in the second quarter, the government said, raising
expectations of an interest rate hike to cool the rapid expansion.
A woman from flood-stricken Huizhou is
rescued by a boat crew yesterday. Six southern provinces have been ravaged by
storms. The death toll from severe rain storms and flooding across China in the
aftermath of severe Tropical Storm Bilis has risen to 188, with more than 120
others missing, state media said early on Tuesday.
PetroChina will post first-half net
profit of 80 billion yuan, the highest among listed firms in Asia, according to
one analyst.
Chief executive Vincent Sollitto
hopes to make Syntax-Brillian a catalyst for the mass-market adoption of HDTV in
the mainland.
DAB lawmaker Choy So-yuk and Environmental Protection Department acting director
Michael Chiu Tak-lun check the air quality under the Canal Road flyover in
Causeway Bay yesterday. A survey of 300 people waiting for buses at the terminus
under the flyover found 80 per cent of them believed the air quality was very
poor. The party urged the government to place more plants in the area. Mr Chiu
said improvements should be made for the whole district, not just the terminus.
Shinsegae is opening its eighth E-Mart store in China this year and aims for 50
outlets by 2012.
Two brothers, one the former chairman of
Skyworth Digital Holdings and the other a former executive director of the
publicly listed company, were each sentenced Thursday in the District Court to
six years in prison for their roles in misappropriating funds exceeding HK$50
million and conspiring to defraud in connection with the granting of share
options.
A visitor gets a close-up look at one of
the ice lanterns and ice sculptures on display at Cityplaza, Taikoo Shing, as
part of the Harbin Ice Lantern Festival, which runs until September 17. Among
the exhibits are a miniature Forbidden Palace, a 14-metre-long ice slide and a
replica of the Shenzhou 6 manned space rocket. It took 22 professional ice
sculptors and engineers from Harbin, Heilongjiang province, to set up the
exhibits.
Four men perform a team dive into a
pool at an amusement park in Beijing on Wednesday as they try to find relief
from high temperatures that have been endured in the capital this week. The city
has been hit by thunderstorms, but the weather has remained hot.
Army joins rescue drill: A PLA landing
vessel swallows life rafts from passenger vessel Ji Mei during a mock
fire-at-sea rescue off Tseung Kwan O. The Hong Kong garrison joined the city's
annual maritime search-and-rescue exercise for the first time yesterday. Marine
police, Fire Services, the Government Flying Service and the Civil Aid Service
also took part in the drill, codenamed "Sarex 2006". 
People sit on hot sand at Flaming
Mountains, outside the town of Turpan, the hottest spot in China, in Xinjiang
province. Burying limbs under the sand is believed to be curative.
The latest changes are
expected to help pave the way for the establishment of a derivatives exchange in
Shanghai and the trading of stock index futures from January. Shares closed
sharply lower in China on Thursday, falling 4.84 per cent as investors chose to
lock in recent gains, with heavy profit-taking seen in the banks and metal
plays, dealers said.
Award-winning British shorthair cat "Marshallpark Oakford of Autumnleaf" struts
its stuff at a press conference yesterday to announce Hong Kong's first Cat
Expo, to be held at the Convention and Exhibition Centre next month. Guest
speaker Bob Zenda, of the Cat Fanciers Association in the US, will give insights
on the characteristics of various breeds for the event on August 5 and 6.
Executive councillor and former DAB
chairman Tsang Yok-sing with Regina Ip yesterday at a cocktail reception to mark
the party's 14th anniversary.
Francis Leung has been dubbed 'father of
red chips' for arranging Hong Kong stock market listings for Chinese firms in
the mid-1990s.
Waste problems mushroom: Residents burn
off waste from the cultivation of mushrooms near the foot of Glacier No1, the
source of the Urumqi River, in Xinjiang. Mushrooms have been cultivated in the
area since 2004 because of its cool climate and pollution-free environment. But
while the mushrooms sell well, the local environment is becoming polluted by the
increasing waste.
About 2,000 people pay their respects to Lo Keng-nin at Universal Funeral
Parlour in Hunghom yesterday. Religious charity Sik Sik Yuen said the service
for its former vice-chairman used an ancient Taoist ritual for the first time in
Hong Kong.
PCCW Solutions managing director George
Fok Yiu-cheung says the appetite for e-government projects has been growing in
the region in the past few years. Amid the high-stakes posturing for control of
PCCW, its unheralded information and communications technology services unit may
define how much of a steal buying the company will prove to be.
A Philips LED sign, the biggest in
Hong Kong, is inaugurated in Wan Chai. As long as an Olympic-size swimming pool,
it measures 9 metres by 47.1 metres and is located on the roof of Immigration
Tower. Philips Electronics said using LED instead of traditional neon signs
reduces energy consumption and is 40 per cent brighter.
Liu Xuan, a gymnastics gold medallist at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games,
yesterday visited the 2009 East Asian Games Gallery at Hong Kong Park Sports
Centre with more than 50 primary and secondary students. She told the students
of her experiences in gymnastics training and said it had been a hard time. She
encouraged students yesterday to become volunteers at the coming 2009 East Asian
Games in Hong Kong, saying it would be a marvellous chance for them to broaden
their horizons.
A trader greets soldiers on the Indian side of the Nathu Pass, in the
northeastern Indian state of Sikkim, yesterday after passing from the Chinese
side through an ornately decorated red ceremonial gateway. The famed Silk Road
pass high in the Himalayas has been reopened 44 years after it was shut by war.
Wet weather failed to dampen spirits at a ceremony attended by officials from
both countries and brightened by festive brass bands.
A police car and bus lie engulfed by floodwaters that swept through Wuhu in
Anhui province on Wednesday. Tornados and torrential rains killed at least 30
people as storms battered Jiangsu and Anhui provinces this week, with millions
more affected by flooding, officials said. A total of 27 people were reported
dead in Jiangsu and about 40,000 were evacuated, said Li Qiubao, an official
from the Jiangsu Civil Affairs Bureau.
The ancient Potala Palace looms over the
Tibetan capital, Lhasa, which is now welcoming about 3,500 more visitors a day
with the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway last Saturday. A senior official
in Tibet has rejected concerns about the environmental impact of a tourism boom
on the world's highest plateau after the completion of the region's first
railway.
Most of Hong Kong's eight
universities will require high school graduates to have at least one elective
subject before considering their admission application in 2012 - paving the way
for the institutions to switch from three to four- year courses. Lingnan
University will be the sole institution under the new "3-3-4" academic structure
starting in 2009 to be satisfied with those undertaking undergraduate degrees
who have good grades in Chinese, English, maths and liberal studies. Speaking
during a Heads of Universities Committee press conference Wednesday about
university requirements under the new academic structure, committee convenor and
Lingnan University president Edward Chen Kwan-yiu said his university's minimum
requirements aim to broaden students' learning base and are in line with the
goals of education reforms. But Hong Kong University, Hong Kong University of
Science and Technology and Hong Kong Institute of Education will require
students to study two elective courses besides the four core subjects. Chinese
University, Baptist University, Polytechnic University and City University will
require one elective besides the four core subjects. Hong Kong Institute of
Education will allow students to replace one elective subject by showing strong
achievement in nontraditional areas such as physical education, music and art.
Most universities' science subjects require students to have taken specific
subjects during secondary studies, such as biology, chemistry, physics or
combined science. Only Lingnan University does not have such a requirement. For
example, HKU's medicine program requires students to have one specific elective
and one unspecified. The specific elective can be chemistry or combined science
with chemistry component. CUHK's medicine program requires students to have two
electives, including a subject from chemistry, biology, physics and combined
science plus one subject including nonscience subjects such as Chinese history,
history, business, or ethics and religious studies. "We want to convey the
message that the universities' requirements have changed to avoid
overspecialization in secondary study. We encourage a more broad-based
curriculum for senior secondary students with more choices to facilitate
whole-person development," Chen said. The four-year undergraduate program will
be introduced in 2012, while the new senior secondary curriculum starts in 2009.
Chen said Lingnan University want to provide flexibility for students to choose
specialization, so they do not make elective courses requirements. HKU registrar
Henry Wai Wing- kun believes the combined science subject, a new course in the
3-3-4 curriculum, will satisfy all requirements for the university's science
programs. CUHK associate pro-vice chancellor and registrar Billy So Kee-long
believes students will tend to take more elective courses if they choose
programs that are competitive. Deputy Secretary for Education and Manpower Chris
Wardlaw welcomed the Heads of Universities Committee's general admission
requirements. 
A shopper gets into the spirit of the
latest No Plastic Bag Day at a store in Tsuen Wan yesterday. The Green Student
Council, which organises the event on the first Tuesday of every month, is
planning a mobile phone message campaign in future to encourage greater use of
re-usable shopping bags.
Shares in Bank of
China, one of the nation's "big four" lenders, made a trading debut in Shanghai
Wednesday morning as the new number-one on China's stock markets. Regulators say
they expect the Bank of China's IPO, which raised nearly 20 billion yuan (US$2.5
billion), along with future listings by other major corporations, to help revive
China's stock markets after years of sluggish trading.
Farmer Li Aiqing sits with younger
students at a primary school in Tanzhuang village, Sheqi county, Henan province.
Ms Li previously only had three months of schooling. Having difficulty finding a
job, she returned and after three years can now read a newspaper.
Chief executive Daniel Truchi says SG
Private Bank is eyeing Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu to set up its
private banking business.
Productivity Council's Yeung Kwok-keung (left) and Microsoft's Herman Lam say
the intellectual property management project will boost the city's
competitiveness.
Hong Kong operators can reap huge
profits by organizing honeymoon tours for mainlanders, according to Commerce
Minister Bo Xilai. He said that 22,000 couples are married daily in the mainland
and if Hong Kong can entice just 1 percent of the newlyweds to spend their
honeymoons in the territory, the business potential will be enormous.
Former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa has
been awarded Hong Kong's top honor, the Grand Bauhinia Medal. The citation
described it as recognition for his "selfless dedication" to Hong Kong and his
work in implementing the "one country, two systems" principle. Critics derided
it as a "consolation prize" for his truncated second term in office and
questioned his contribution. Mr. Tung is one of three recipients of the top
award in the July 1 honors list. The others are executive councillor Charles Lee
Yeh-kwong and the chairman of the Friends of Hong Kong Association, Leo Lee
Tung-hai.
Thousands of bargain hunters
yesterday flocked to Shanghai's Xiangyang Market in search of discounts on
knock-off name brand products before the market's doors were finally closed as
part of the city government's efforts to protect intellectual property. A fight
breaks out between shoppers and traders during the final hours of the Xiangyang
clothing market in Shanghai yesterday.
